


Overdose

by Dreamshaper



Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Genre: Drug Use, F/F, Good times, Pathologist Helena, Social Worker Dinah, even more so than usual, socially awkward Helena, who are trying to figure out if someone is killing people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:15:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 31,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27643304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: When one of her clients is found dead of a drug overdose, social worker Dinah Lance immediately suspects foul play. Together with detective Renee Montoya and pathologist Helena Bertinelli, she tries to find and stop the culprit.
Relationships: Helena Bertinelli/Dinah Lance
Comments: 124
Kudos: 91





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, another one... This pairing is very inspiring, lol. And of course another AU, because I'm trash for AUs, hahaha. I hope you will enjoy this :D

The second Dinah enters her small office, the phone rings, and she knows that can’t be good, there is only one person who calls right on the dot at eight a.m., and that person never brings any good news.

“Montoya”, she doesn’t bother to sound friendly as she takes the call, she’s had a long night, on the phone for hours with one of her clients and she hasn’t had a coffee yet, “what is it?”

“Cass”, Montoya replies, and Dinah fights the urge to let out a groan, opting for pinching the bridge of her nose instead as the woman on the other end of the line can’t see her do so, “ditched school, patrol car picked her up. She’s here with me now.”

“On my way”, Dinah sighs, earning a vaguely affirmative noise, “and you better have some coffee ready when I get there.”

“Gotcha”, the other woman replies, with a hint of amusement in her voice; Dinah sighs again in response, then ends the call and grabs her keys, letting her boss know she has to go to GCPD as she heads out again. 

“See you”, the elder man responds, already buried in his paperwork for the day; it’s only him and her at the moment, grossly underfunded as they are, and she doubts this will change anytime soon, Gotham has money for many things, but social workers isn’t one of them, both Dinah and her boss struggling with a workload bigger than it should be.

Thus, her mood isn’t great when she has to use some of her time to drive to the police department, even though she knows it’s lucky that Montoya is giving her that chance; and so, she tells herself to be friendly as she parks the car a short while later and gets out of it, taking a deep calming breath before she enters the building.

Montoya’s office is located farther back from the entrance, a nod to her status as long-time detective; and in that office, the woman herself is waiting, with Cassandra and a cup of steaming hot coffee, with no milk and two sugars, just how Dinah likes it.

“Thanks”, she takes a moment to be polite, then turns to give the teenaged girl a hard look, said girl to her credit at least looking guilty, and not like she doesn’t care, the way some of Dinah’s other clients do.

“Cassandra”, she still makes sure to sound strict, “we’ve talked about this! You can’t keep skipping school!”

Cassandra mumbles something vaguely agreeing in response, but that’s not enough for Dinah; she gives her another strict look as she tells her to go wait in the hallway, gaze softening though when she turns to look at the detective, even though it gets hard to remain polite and nice at what the woman says the moment Cassandra is out the door.

“I can’t keep doing that, you know”, Montoya lets her know, and Dinah sighs, knowing the elder woman is right, “I can’t bring her here and have you pick her up with no consequence. Next time this happens, I’ll have to take it one step further, so you better talk some sense into her now.”

“I know”, Dinah has to admit, making a face, “and I appreciate it how you help her out, but you know how it is for her Renee…”

“I do know”, Renee tells her, then gives her a strict look of her own, “and don’t try to soften me up by using my first name. Next time we pick her up ditching school, she might end up in juvenile detention and you know it.”

“I know”, Dinah can only say again, finishing her coffee so at least that won’t go to waste, “I’ll talk to her, I promise. Thanks again.”

“You’re welcome”, Renee says with a small sigh of her own, accepting the emptied cup when Dinah hands it to her; the social worker makes herself smile at the detective again, then leaves the office to collect Cassandra, glad that the teenaged girl is waiting in the hallway as she has been told and hasn’t taken the chance given to run off.

“Look”, she says as they start walking towards the exit, Dinah skillfully ignoring the lecherous way some of the policemen look at her while Cassandra keeps her gaze fixed to the floor, “I know school’s not fun, but you can’t keep ditching, alright? Montoya can only cover your ass for so long, and if you keep this up, you’ll end up in juvy.”

“I know”, Cassandra mumbles, still staring at her feet as they walk; Dinah gives her another moment to say anything else, but the kid remains silent, not speaking up when they get to her car and get into the vehicle either.

“You probably have some weird ideas”, Dinah is the one to break the silence after all as she starts the engine, “about how the other kids will be frightened of you and will leave you alone once you’ve been to juvy. But they won’t, they’ll only bully you more for it, it will only make things worse for you, not better. The best thing you can do for yourself is power through it and graduate, it will get better. And you know you can call me anytime.”

“I know”, Cassandra repeats, but at least this time, she looks at Dinah as she does so; Dinah isn’t quite sure she has gotten through to her, but figures that the eye contact is a good sign, smiling at the teenager as she carefully drives out of the parking lot.

“Alright”, she says as she steers the car onto the road, “use that knowledge, then. Come on, I’ll drop you off at school.”

Cassandra doesn’t look happy, but nods, at least, Dinah reasons as she drives, she won’t miss more than the first class; traffic is okay, too, and they get to the school fairly quickly, Dinah waiting in the car at the sidewalk until she actually has seen Cassandra go inside.

Once that has happened, she drives off again, back to the office; at least, she tells herself as she does so, she won’t be late for her first appointment of the day, a former drug dealer who has to see her regularly as part of his probation, he’s scheduled to show up and half past nine and she might have to break a traffic law or two, but she’s confident she can make it in time.

She does, to her relief, and the appointment goes well, the man having found a job and staying away from his former friends, and despite the bad start into the day, Dinah feels better by the time that appointment is over and the guy heads out.

A quick glance at her watch tells her she has ten minutes until the next appointment, and she decides to get some paperwork done until then; and just as she begins, her phone rings again, and she holds back a sigh, this seems to happen with alarming regularity whenever she tries to take care of the bureaucratic side of her job.

“Social Work Office, Dinah Lance”, she takes the call, and frowns when it’s Renee Montoya again; the woman sounds not annoyed though, as she might have if they had found Cassandra out and about again, but oddly subdued, and suddenly, Dinah has the sinking feeling that something very bad has happened.

“It’s not Cass again, is it”, she still says, hoping that perhaps, it’s not as bad as her gut is telling her, even though she had learned to trust her instincts in the years she has been doing this job; Renee tells her it’s not, and goes on before she has to ask, confirming her worst fears.

“It’s Joey Cawthon”, she says, Dinah sitting up straighter in her chair, “his neighbours found him in his home. He’s dead, Dinah.”


	2. Chapter 2

Dinah arrives at the man’s apartment at record time, glad that Renee is still there; the other detective, a younger guy Dinah doesn’t know, but doesn’t care much about either, eyes her oddly when she enters, but doesn’t try to stop her, even taking a step back at the familiar way Renee and Dinah greet each other.

“You know it’s not standard procedure to have the victim’s social worker show up”, Renee points out to her, but Dinah just shrugs, and the detective doesn’t stop her when she glances past her at the dead body; she can tell at once the guy has died from a drug overdose, she has seen it before and knows what to look for, but she can’t believe that this is what has happened to Joey.

“That can’t be”, she says out loud, Renee giving her a sympathetic look, “he’s been clean, almost a year! He had a job, he wouldn’t have gone back to this shit!”

“He lost the job two days ago”, Renee tells her, nodding at once of the evidence bags her colleague and she have gathered, “we found the pink slip while searching the place.”

“I still can’t believe that”, Dinah declares, shaking her head for emphasis, “he didn’t even drink alcohol anymore, or smoke weed or normal cigarettes, he was almost straight edge. Something’s wrong here Renee.”

If it had been anyone else, Renee would have shrugged this off, and would not have bothered to give it another thought; she knows Dinah though, and she knows that the woman has a good instinct for these things, taking another look at the corpse before her gaze focuses on Dinah again.

“You sure about this?” she asks, lowering her voice so no one else will hear; Dinah nods at once, and after a moment, Renee does the same, once again making sure no one is eavesdropping before she goes on.

“Fine”, she says, Dinah feeling immensely grateful at once, “I’ll look into it, I’ll call in a favour with forensics. Meet me at the station, tonight at eight.”

“Thank you”, Dinah sighs, honestly grateful; she’s not quite sure what has happened to the man, but she is certain he hasn’t killed himself with a heroin overdose, and perhaps,Renee might be able to help her prove this.

“Don’t thank me too early”, Renee warns her, both of them glad that her colleague is still out of earshot, “might have been a simple overdose after all. I’ll see you later.”

Dinah nods and gives her another smile, grateful despite Renee’s warning; then, as the other detective is eying her impatiently by now, she says goodbye and heads back out, glancing at the dead young man as she does so, fully convinced that something shady is going on and hoping that Renee will be able to help her figure it out.

* * *

The time until eight p.m. is filled with appointments and paperwork, but still it feels as if time is passing slower than usual to Dinah; finally though, the time to leave the office and head to the station arrives, Dinah waving bye to her boss on the way out, the elder man barely acknowledging her as she walks past him.

“Don’t stay too long, Matt”, she still says, she knows he works even more than she herself does, and she feels close to her limits at times; he just grunts again in response, and Dinah shakes her head to herself as she leaves, feeling curious and a bit anxious as she gets into her car.

She thinks of Joey again as she drives, she still refuses to believe he has overdosed; their last appointment has just been a few days ago, and he’d been doing good, and Dinah knows he would have called her before just relapsing, he has done so before, and together, they have managed to get him through the urge every time.

Suddenly, Dinah feels close to tears, and she reprimands herself, she knows she’s not supposed to build up such a strong connection to her clients, but she can’t quite help herself; she wipes at her eyes somewhat angrily and, once she arrives at the station, takes a minute to make sure she is calm again before she gets out of the car and walks to the building.

Renee is waiting for her in the lobby, and that makes Dinah wonder if she is doing this off the books; she remembers what Renee has said about asking forensics for a favour, and instantly feels grateful again, a feeling which only increases when Renee speaks up after they’ve exchanged greetings.

“So”, the detective says, keeping her voice low, there’s not many officers around, but Dinah figures it’s better to be safe than sorry, “this is sort of unofficial, so don’t blab about it, alright? Come with me.”

She leads the way, and Dinah trails along behind her, feeling a bit uneasy when they go downstairs; she knows that the forensic lab is down there, probably as underfunded as the rest of the city’s bureaucracy, but she never actually has been there, and she doesn’t much enjoy the thought of standing in a room filled with dead people.

_ Do it for Joey _ , she sternly tells herself, glancing around as she follows Renee; the forensic lab seems to take up most of the basement area, and at least it’s well lit and clean, but it also appears to be empty, Renee frowning as she looks around, Dinah inching a step or two closer to her when she sees a covered body on an operating table just a few feet away. 

“Yo!” Renee calls out loudly, making Dinah jump, “Bloodinelli, where are you? I’m here about the favour!”

“It’d be a favour if you’d stop calling me Bloodinelli”, someone says from right behind Dinah, and she actually squeals as she jumps and whirls around, heart racing as the woman who has just startled her so badly looks back at her in slight confusion.

“Did I frighten you?” she then asks, while Renee just rolls her eyes and Dinah can only stare, her heart still beating fast, “I apologize. Dr. Helena Bertinelli, nice to meet you.”

“Um, Dinah Lance”, Dinah manages, now taking a closer look at the other woman; she’s tall, and even with the white lab coat, Dinah can tell she’s in good shape, a bit surprised to realize that the doctor is close to her own age, somewhat young perhaps for a job like this, but then, she has quickly learned to not judge a book by its cover at her job.

“She worked with Cawthon”, Renee fills in Helena about Dinah’s presence at the lab, “had the gut feeling that something’s fishy. You find anything?”

“Of course I found things”, Helena tells her, and Dinah has a second to get her hopes up before she continues, “he was a young man who died of a drug overdose, not of natural cause. That is what I found.”

“That’s it?” Dinah asks before she can stop herself, she still can’t believe this, not after how well Joey has been doing, “are you sure?”

Thankfully, Helena doesn’t seem offended by the question, but just responds by moving to one of the desks with a computer on it; she pushes a few buttons, then gestures at the screen, Dinah and Renee both moving closer so they can peer at it while the doctor speaks up again.

“Heroin overdose”, Helena says, not having to glance at the screen to know what the report she has made says, “that is what he died off. There was no sign of a struggle or other violence aimed at him, a few small cuts on his hands, presumably from his job, and the needle marks, left crook of his arm.”

“Left”, Dinah repeats, looking from the screen at Helena again, then at Renee, “that’s it! He was left-handed, he always used his left hand when he was still… doing that.”

Helena raises her brows, and Renee looks doubtful as well, and Dinah’s heart sinks as she can tell they both don’t think this is enough to qualify as evidence for foul play; her shoulders slump, and she sighs, Renee giving her a sympathetic look as she pats her shoulder. 

“I know this is difficult for you”, she says, Dinah giving her an unhappy look, “but sometimes, these things just happen, even with those where we can’t believe it. I’m sorry, Dinah, but it’s not enough.”

“Thanks for trying, anyway”, Dinah sighs, “I appreciate it, I do, I just… can’t believe he did this.”

“I know”, Renee tells her, Helena watching the exchange in silence, hands stuffed into the pocket of her coat, “and I mean it, I’m sorry. Thanks for your help, Bloodinelli.”

“Bertinelli”, Helena corrects, and her long-suffering tone tells Dinah this isn’t the first time; she manages a small smile at the woman as she mumbles “thanks” as well, then Renee leads the way back out, Dinah following her with a heavy heart, feeling as if she has failed Joey even though no one else seems to think that things are not quite as they seem about his death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helena. Scaring people is not a good way to introduce yourself. XD


	3. Chapter 3

With Joey’s death having been ruled as accidental overdose and not the result of a crime, his body is released for the funeral fairly quickly, and even though she has a busy schedule, Dinah makes sure to attend; it’s just her and the man’s younger brother, and she feels bad for said brother, trying to give him some comfort as the coffin is lowered into the ground.

“I don’t understand this”, the young man sniffles, Dinah offering him a tissue which he is quick to take, noisily blowing his nose before he goes on, “he’s been away from that stuff, for good. He called me, told me he’d lost his job, but he already had something new lined up, he sounded so hopeful and happy, he wouldn’t have…”

“I know”, Dinah tells him, for a moment tempted to let him know she feels the same and even has gotten help from the police and their pathologist, then remembers that Renee has asked her not to talk about it and keeping it to herself, “I felt the same but… Police is sure it’s an overdose. I’m sorry.”

He sniffles again in response, then blows his nose once more; and then, he takes in a deep breath as he regains his composure and thanks Dinah for attending, the social worker managing a small smile in response.

“He always talked highly about you”, Joey’s brother lets her know, and she’s touched by those kind words, “you’ve helped him so much, thank you.”

Dinah just nods, still feeling like she has failed Joey, and still convinced he hasn’t overdosed; she doesn’t say this to the man’s brother though, just shakes his hand and tells him to call if he needs to talk, then heads back to the office.

Her boss is on the phone when she enters, and she waves at him, earning a nod in response; she hears him talk to his client until she shuts the door to her own office, his voice muffled now, but she has made out enough to know he is talking to someone close to relapsing, and she hopes he will manage to convince the person not to do it, not wanting to lose another one after Joey.

She gets started on her own work, using the time until her next client to get some paperwork done; as she works though, she keeps thinking back to Joey, still unable to shake the feeling that he hasn’t killed himself, but knowing there is nothing she can do anymore at this point, the knowledge weighing heavily on her heart.

Dinah wonders how long she will have to live with that, if it will fade away after a while or if this feeling will remain, not quite sure what she will do if it doesn’t go away again.

* * *

A few days go by, and while Dinah keeps thinking about Joey and her doubts about his death, the guilt she feels lessens a bit; she’s kept busy at work, too, talking to clients and doing her paperwork, often working much longer than the official hours if only so she can keep up, something Matt and she have in common, the two of them at this point probably spending enough at the bodega on the corner to keep it in business just by selling them coffee and food.

Dinah is just coming back from another run to the bodega with coffee and sandwiches for Matt and herself when her office phone rings, and she recognizes the number as one from GCPD, but it’s not Renee, and she frowns to herself, wondering if Cassandra finally has gone too far and has been picked up by someone not as helpful as Renee is.

“Social Work Office, Dinah Lance”, she takes the call formally, just in case it’s not Renee using a different phone, but someone who’s not quite as familiar with her, her eyebrows shooting up when the caller responds.

“Hello, this is Dr. Helena Bertinelli”, the pathologist greets her, and Dinah can only blink, not quite sure why the woman is calling her, sudden dread filling her though as she realizes this can’t mean anything good.

“Um, hello”, she still says, trying hard to keep her voice steady, “how can I help you?”

“Do you have time tonight”, Helena wants to know in response, prompting Dinah to raise her brows again even though the woman can’t see her, “to meet me at the lab? There is something I want you to see.”

“You sure you got the right number”, Dinah asks before she can stop herself, “I’m a social worker, not a… I don’t know, detective or something.”

“I’m aware”, Helena tells her, in a deadpan tone which makes Dinah wonder if the woman isn’t aware she hasn’t been fully serious, “you got time at eight tonight?”

“I guess”, Dinah agrees after a moment, figuring that Helena won’t tell her whatever it is over the phone or she already would have done so, “I’ll see you later then…?”

“Yes”, Helena confirms, “good. Goodbye.”

She hangs up before Dinah has the chance to say anything, prompting her to blink at her phone in confusion; shaking her head to herself, she puts the receiver down as well, staring at the phone afterwards as if it might tell her what this is about if she just looks for long enough.

No answers come though, and for a moment, Dinah is tempted to call Renee and ask her what the fuck is going on; then, she decides against it though, realizing that this might not be an official thing, especially since Helena wants her to drop by in the evening again, certainly, her work hours end before eight p.m. and there has to be some sort of reason why she wants Dinah to show up at that time.

She quickly glances at her watch, then at her appointments for the day, relieved to see she hasn’t agreed too early and that she’ll actually get done in time to arrive at the station at the agreed upon time.

She’s still curious what this is about, but figures she will find out once she’ll arrive at the station; and even though she tries hard to focus on her job for the rest of the day, her thoughts keep straying back to Helena and to wondering what the doctor wants to show her, the feeling that it’s something potentially very bad nagging at her until it’s time to pack up and leave.

“I’m heading out”, she tells Matt as she walks past the man in question, Matt nodding as he keeps gaze focused on his computer, “see you tomorrow, don’t stay too long.”

He lets out a vaguely agreeing noise and waves at her, and she shakes her head to herself, figuring he once again hasn’t even properly heard her; she’s used to this from him though, and so, she heads out without looking back, gets into her car and drives to the station, curious what Helena wants to show her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, what will Helena have to show?


	4. Chapter 4

Dinah knows it’s irrational, but she still feels a bit creeped out as she walks down the stairs to the forensics lab; once again, she can see covered up bodies lying on the steel desks, and she holds back the urge to grimace, she can’t see Helena, but that doesn’t mean Helena can’t see her, and she doesn’t want to give her the impression she is disgusted by her workplace.

“Hello?” she calls out, trying very hard to not think of the horror movies she has seen where dead bodies sit up suddenly on the morgue tables, “Dr. Bertinelli?”

“Over here”, the woman’s voice calls out to her from the far back of the lab, and Dinah has to hold back another grimace as this means she has to walk past a row of tables with dead bodies on them; she steels herself and does so, walking a bit faster than strictly necessary perhaps, finding Helena at one of the tables at the back of the lab, the taller woman standing with her back to her, turning to face her though as she hears her approach.

She holds a large glass jar in her hands, and automatically, Dinah looks at it as Helena is busy screwing the lid on; and a moment later, her steps falter, and she stares, her gaze moving back up to Helena’s face, the doctor looking back at her unperturbed.

“Are those…?” Dinah starts, even though she’s not sure she wants to know; Helena looks down on the jar, then back up at her again, nodding as she puts it down on the table, giving Dinah another way too good look at the contents.

“Eyeballs, yes”, she confirms, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world for a person to carry around a jar with eyeballs, but then, Dinah thinks to herself, for someone with a job like Helena’s, it probably is; Dinah swallows and finds it hard to not look at the jar, but forces herself to keep her gaze on the doctor, even though her own eyes want to stray back to those floating in the jar.

“So, um”, she says, Helena wiping her hands on a cloth she has pulled from one of her labcoat’s pockets, “you wanted to show me something…? I assume it’s not your eyeball jar here.”

“No”, Helena says, completely serious, “follow me.”

She makes her way to another one of the desks, and Dinah winces when she pulls the cloth covering the body off and reveals said body; it’s a young man, not one of her clients, thankfully, but vaguely familiar even in death, and she frowns as she looks at him, not quite sure why Helena is showing her this.

“You know him?” Helena asks, making Dinah look at her again; her frown deepens as she is not quite sure what Helena is going for with this, then shrugs, looking at the dead man again, aware of Helena watching her as she studies the slack, pale face.

“I’m not sure”, she finally says, annoyed at herself for not being able to tell for sure, “he seems familiar but…”

“Kyle Parrish”, Helena tells her in response, and that name does seem as familiar to Dinah as the man’s face does, “found dead this morning, overdose, like Joey Cawthon. He was in contact with Matthew Anderson, I imagine that name is familiar to you?”

“He’s my boss”, Dinah lets the doctor know, even though Helena probably is already aware of that, “yeah, that… He could have been one of Matt’s clients. We both got so many, you know, but it’s just the two of us so…”

“Underfunded and overworked”, Helena nods, a bit blunt, perhaps, but then, she’s not wrong, “a common problem in Gotham. This young man here has been brought here as an obvious death by overdose.”

“Okay?” Dinah says, not sure where this is going, but she has the feeling that Helena isn’t done yet, and a moment later, this is proven to be right, as the doctor turns to the smaller table next to the one Parrish is lying on and picks up a stack of papers, Dinah watching in quiet confusion how she pulls a pair of glasses from the chest pocket of her coat and puts them on.

“I thought about what you had said”, she tells Dinah as she quickly goes through the papers, until she finds the page she’s been looking for, “when Cawthon was found dead, and Detective Montoya says you have a good gut instinct. Personally, I don’t believe in gut feelings, but you did seem very convinced, so I ran a larger toxicology test than I usually do in such cases.”

“Okay”, Dinah says again, oddly touched by this, she doesn’t know much about these things, but it feels like this is not an ordinary, every day occurrence, “did you find anything… unusual?”

“A slightly higher concentration than normal of morphine-6-glucoronide”, Helena tells her, and she frowns again, “high even for an overdose victim. I ran the same test on Cawthon’s blood sample, and it’s higher than usual, as well.”

“Does this… is it enough?” Dinah wants to know, remembering what Renee has said about the needlemarks in Joey’s arm; Helena shakes her head, and Dinah’s face falls, and she wonders why Helena has asked her to come here in the first place if what she has discovered isn’t enough to actually do anything with it.

“Not with just two people”, Helena goes on, removing her glasses and tucking them into the pocket while she puts the stack of papers back onto the desk, “but now we know there is something to look out for. And we might need your help with this.”

“My help”, Dinah repeats, that is not quite what she has expected, “okay? How? I’m a social worker, not a detective.”

“You work with people like Cawthon and Parrish”, Helena points out, making her nod, even though she’s still unsure where this is leading, “and you know them. You were sure Joey Cawthon didn’t overdose, and from what we know about Parrish, it might be unlikely, as well. We’ve found these things in his home.”

She picks up a plastic evidence bag and holds it up so Dinah can see it; there’s a few pieces of paper in it, she can’t quite read what’s on them, but she recognizes the biggest object in the bag with ease, the feeling that something shady is going on only growing as she frowns at it.

“That’s an Evzio”, she says, making Helena nod, “I carry one of those, too. It works like an epipen, only for opioid overdoses.”

“I’m aware”, Helena tells her, and Dinah blushes a bit, belatedly remembering she is talking to a doctor, “it hasn’t been used, even though it has been on his nightstand, easy to reach for him. Perhaps someone is targeting people like him and Cawthon, and you know these people, you will be able to help. Just keep your eyes and ears open for now?”

“I can do that”, Dinah nods at once, she doesn’t like the idea of someone targeting people like her clients, and she likes the thought of Gotham police not doing anything about it even less, but perhaps, Helena can find out more which will lead to an actual investigation, and if she can help with this, she is happy to do so in any way she can.

“I’m in”, she thus says, glad when this earns her a brief smile from Helena, she doesn’t know the woman well, but she doesn’t seem like someone who’s quick to smile or even laugh, “um… thanks for your trust, Dr. Bertinelli.”

“Thank you for agreeing to help, Miss Lance”, Helena tells her in response, making it Dinah’s turn to smile, “here, my card. Keep me updated on anything you hear or see, no matter how insignificant it seems.”

“I will”, Dinah promises her as she takes the card and pockets it; she thanks Helena again, then takes her leave, not quite sure still what to think of this as she walks to her car, but glad to have the doctor on her side now, telling herself that together, they can figure it out if something shady truly is going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the medical stuff in this comes from what I could learn from Google, please be gentle in case there are mistakes xD


	5. Chapter 5

Dinah isn’t quite sure what exactly she should be looking and listening for, but she does try to keep her eyes and ears open for anything unusual during her talks with her clients; she wonders if perhaps, someone is approaching them, lulls them in and then kills them with an overdose, but she’s not quite sure how to find out, she usually asks her clients about their private lives, but doesn’t dig deeper about any new friends they might have made.

If any of them has, they don’t tell her, but at least, most of them seem to be doing well; the men and women she is working with don’t seem in any danger to relapse, a few of them have found jobs, and while one of the women has lost her job, she reassures Dinah that she is already close to finding something new and won’t use drugs to handle the disappointment of being fired.

A few days go by, during which nothing unusual happens, and neither Renee, nor Helena call her to inform her about another victim of heroin overdose; and she starts to wonder if perhaps, she has been wrong all along, that there is no big mystery behind the deaths, but that the two men truly have died of a self-inflicted overdose, as hard as that seems to believe about Joey Cawthon.

She wonders if she should call Helena, even though she hasn’t learned anything new, and ask her if any new overdose victims have found their way to her lab; it seems unlikely to her that Helena would forget to call her though, she doesn’t know the woman well, but so far, Helena has seemed organized and meticulous about her work, and not like the kind of person who’d forget to call someone she’s asked for help in the first place.

So, Dinah doesn’t make the call, and she’s oddly glad that neither Helena, nor Renee call her, either, as it means that no more dead people have been found and that Cassandra isn’t in trouble again; and as she works from day to day, she gets more and more convinced that she has worried for nothing, that there is nobody out there killing recovering drug addicts for the fun of it.

Then, one afternoon, one of her clients doesn’t show up to his regular appointment, and even though this happens sometimes without people dying, Dinah immediately has the feeling that something is wrong.

She tries calling the man, a guy her age, not quite surprised when she ends up listening to his voicemail - “Yo, this is Aaron, can’t talk right now, leave a message”; she does, even though she fears it won’t be listened to anymore, asking him to call her back before she leans back in her seat and stares up at the ceiling, not quite sure what to do now.

It’s not quite protocol to show up at a client’s home unannounced, even when that client misses an appointment; with how underfunded and understaffed they are, they usually just send out a letter and move on to the next client, but after two deaths, Dinah isn’t sure if this is a good idea.

She knows Matt wouldn’t approve, the man is a good boss on most days, and working hard, but he is also a stickler for the rules; and so, she decides not to tell him where she is going, just letting him know she has to head out for a bit, glad when he just nods without even looking up from the file he is working on and doesn’t ask her where she is going.

As she makes her way to her car, Dinah tries calling Aaron once more, just in case; she once more ends up listening to his voicemail, and that only strengthens her decision to check on his apartment, perhaps, she might find him there, she reasons, lost in some video game and with his phone muted. 

At least, she tells herself as she starts the engine, Aaron’s home isn’t far from her office; and traffic is light, too, at least for Gotham, and so, she gets there fairly quickly, needing a while to find a parking spot, but succeeding with that as well, nervous again as she enters the somewhat rundown building Aaron lives in and makes her way up to the second floor.

“Aaron?” she calls out as she rings the bell, then knocks the door, raising her voice further to make sure he can hear her, “Aaron, it’s Dinah! You’re not in trouble for missing the appointment, but I need you to open the door now!”

She knocks again, harder this time, but the apartment behind the door remains quiet; for a moment, Dinah considers trying to break it down on her own, then realizes this might get her in trouble with the cops, and pulls her phone out instead, calling Renee’s number, grimacing when some other male cop takes the call.

“Detective Montoya is out on a case”, he tells her when Dinah asks to speak to Renee, “can I help you, Miss…?”

“No, thank you”, Dinah says, ending the call before he can say anything else; she ponders for a moment if she should really do this, then nods to herself and calls Helena, having saved the woman’s number to her phone after she’s been given the card.

She hopes Helena will take the call as she pushes the button, not sure what she will do if she doesn’t; to her relief though, she doesn’t have to make that decision, as the call is taken after the second ring, Dinah feeling relieved when Helena’s voice reaches her ear.

“GCPD forensic lab, Dr. Bertinelli speaking”, Helena says, and Dinah for a moment wonders if there is actually anyone else working there, since she hasn’t seen any other people there, but then, she has been there after official hours; she quickly introduces herself, than falters, not quite sure how to explain the reason for her call without sounding paranoid or hysterical.

“One of my former addicts missed his appointment today”, she starts after a moment, Helena letting out a vaguely agreeing noise in reply to signal she is listening, “it happens, with others, but he never has missed one before. I called him and he didn’t answer, so I’m at his home now, but he’s not opening the door or reacting in any way. I can’t just leave, he might be… and I couldn’t reach Renee…”

“I’m on my way”, Helena tells her at once, to her relief not telling her that she is overreacting, or asking her why she is wasting her time with this, “I’ll meet you there. Address?”

Dinah tells her, then just has time to add a quick “thank you” before Helena says she will get moving and quickly ends the call again; and even though Dinah is still not sure if her worries are justified or if she is indeed overreacting, she’s glad that Helena has been so fast to jump into action, fidgeting as for now, all she can do is wait until the doctor arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helpful Helena is helpful. :D Good thing she gave Dinah her number XD


	6. Chapter 6

It doesn’t take Helena long to arrive, to Dinah’s relief; while she has been waiting, she’s called Aaron again, and has heard the phone ring in the apartment, a fact which only has convinced her further that something is very wrong.

“Miss Lance”, Helena greets her as she comes up the stairs, part of Dinah realizing that this is the first time she sees her without her labcoat on, the black leather jacket she wears instead looking quite good on her, “I came as fast as possible.”

“Thank you”, Dinah says with a small sigh, gesturing at the door, “this is his apartment. I tried calling him again while you were on the way, and I heard his phone ring in there.”

Helena makes a face, they both know this isn’t a good sign; she doesn’t say anything about how the man might be lying dead in there though, but reaches into her pocket and pulls out a hairpin, of all things, Dinah watching with raised brows how she steps closer to the door and carefully inserts it into the lock.

“I didn’t know they teach lockpicking at medical school”, she says as the doctor works on the lock; there’s an audible  _ click _ , and the door swings open, Helena perfectly serious when she straightens up and looks at Dinah again.

“They don’t”, she says, and Dinah blinks at her deadpan tone; before she can say anything though, Helena has stepped into the apartment, calling out “Sir?”, Dinah belatedly realizing that she hasn’t told Helena Aaron’s name, but the doctor doesn’t seem all too bothered by this lack of knowledge.

“Aaron?” she calls out as well, moving into the small apartment as well; and a moment later, she nearly bumps into Helena as the taller woman stops all at once, her apology dying on her lips though when she sees why Helena has stopped walking.

“Oh shit”, she manages, her throat suddenly oddly tight; she doesn’t need to be a doctor to know Aaron is dead and to know how he has died, the needle is still in his arm after all, and there is dried foam on his lips and cheeks, his eyes open, but rolled back so far in his head that she can only see the whites.

“Don’t touch anything”, Helena says as she pulls her phone from her pocket; Dinah can only nod, unable to look away from the dead body, and after a moment, Helena seems to realize how disturbed she is, sounding a bit kinder when she suggests that maybe Dinah should wait outside.

“I’m calling Detective Montoya”, she adds when Dinah looks at her somewhat slowly, as if in a daze, “she’ll want to know about this, but we can wait for her outside, come on.”

Dinah manages a nod, and they step outside into the hallway together; Helena makes her phone call, then looks at Dinah again, suddenly appearing somewhat uncomfortable, Dinah by now having recovered enough to realize this, Helena speaking up before she has to ask though. 

“I’m sorry”, she says, surprising Dinah as she hasn’t quite expected an apology, and isn’t very sure  _ what _ Helena actually is apologizing for, “I don’t… spend much time with people who are not used to dead bodies. I didn’t realize this might be upsetting to you.”

“Oh”, Dinah lets out, “um… it’s okay? But you’re right, I’m not really used to seeing… that. I guess you have seen way worse.”

Helena just shrugs, apparently not planning to entertain Dinah with stories about the awful things she actually has seen; and Dinah is somewhat grateful for that, managing a small smile before she glances at the open apartment door again, frowning as another thought hits her. 

“You won’t get in trouble, right?” she asks, the last thing she wants is to cause trouble for Helena after how quick she has been to help, “for opening the door, I mean? It’s not like you have a warrant or anything, just… a worried social worker.”

“Him not reacting is reason enough to assume he was in danger”, Helena tells her, Dinah raising her brows, not quite sure if it can be that easy, but figuring Helena knows what she’s talking about, “so we had good reason to open the door. Detective Montoya will agree, I imagine.”

Dinah hopes this is correct, figuring though they will find out once Renee arrives; and the detective does so a short while later, to her relief, Helena nodding a greeting at her while Renee looks somewhat curious at finding them both here.

“I tried calling you first”, Dinah tells her at the questioning look, “but some guy told me you’re out on a case. So I tried Dr. Bertinelli next.”

“Good thinking”, Renee tells her, “and you found that guy dead? Of an overdose?”

“The third case in less than a week”, Helena comments, making them both look at her, Renee with raised brows while Dinah grimaces, “you have to admit detective, even for Gotham, this is a bit extreme.”

“Yeah”, Renee says after a moment, frowning, “you’re right, it is. Dinah, wait here. Bloodinelli, come in there with me, let’s take another look around. You didn’t touch anything, did you.”

“No”, Helena sighs, this time not commenting on the nickname, Dinah notes; she feels a bit out of place as she stands there and watches them go back inside Aaron’s apartment, but on the other hand, she really doesn’t want to see the dead body again, and so, she is somewhat glad she gets to wait outside.

She can hear Helena and Renee talk inside the apartment, but can’t quite make out what they are saying; Helena seems to do more of the talking, Renee throwing in brief comments every now and then, and it takes them quite a while to come back out into the hallway, the detective already having her phone in hand when she steps out the door. 

“I’ll have the body picked up and taken to the morgue”, she says, clearing her throat at the way Helena raises her brows at the last word, “I mean, to the  _ lab _ . Let me know about the results once you are done, doctor?”

“Will do”, Helena tells her, and this exchange feels sort of final; Renee nods and walks a few steps away to make her call, while Helena turns to Dinah again, vaguely gesturing at the apartment as she continues.

“I’ll do a thorough autopsy on him”, she says, Dinah fighting the urge to make a face, she knows this is Helena’s job and that the woman is only telling her this in an attempt to show her something is being done about it, “and report to Detective Montoya. I imagine she’ll fill you in. Keep your eyes and ears open, yes?”

“I will”, Dinah reassures her at once, “thanks for all your help, doctor. I really appreciate it.”

Helena just gives her a terse nod, then tells her she has work to do - and before Dinah can say anything, the taller woman turns and walks off, Dinah blinking as she watches her go.

Helena certainly is peculiar, she ponders as she watches her leave, but now, it seems that finally enough has happened to warrant an investigation, and she finds herself hoping that soon, they will find and stop the one responsible for those deaths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Dinah :(


	7. Chapter 7

Already in the next afternoon, Dinah gets another call from Renee, the detective asking her to come down to the station and meet her there at the morgue, adding that Helena has gotten done in record time with her work on Aaron’s body; Dinah lets her know she’s as good as on her way, then ends the call, figuring that Helena must have found something good if Renee is asking her to come to the station.

_ If there had been nothing suspicious, she just would have told me on the phone _ , she tells herself as she gets into her car, and it’s quite the effort for her to stick to the speed limit,  _ they must have found  _ something _ if she wants me to come to the station. _

She’s curious, but this time she knows she won’t have to wait long for answers; and when she arrives at the station, her plan is to go straight down to the morgue -  _ the lab,  _ she reminds herself as she gets out of the car,  _ clearly, the doctor prefers it if it’s called the lab  _ \- and see what Helena and Renee have found out, and she’s glad she knows the way to the lab by now and doesn’t need to ask around for it. 

“Can I help you?” one officer still asks her as she turns towards the stairs leading down to the morgue; he’s one of those who’d give her the sort of unabashed once-over which makes her skin crawl, but Dinah forces herself to give him a polite smile, not wanting to end up in any sort of trouble with the police which might keep her from making her way down to the lab. 

“I have an appointment”, she thus says, making sure to sound polite, but not too friendly, she remembers him as one of those who’s eyed her when she’s been here to see Renee last time, “with Detective Montoya and Dr. Bertinelli.”

“Oh”, he lets out, making a face, Dinah fighting the urge to do the same, his reaction bothering her more than it perhaps should, considering she’s not exactly friends with either of the two women, “well. Have fun with Montoya and Dr. Creepinelli then.”

Hearing him call Helena  _ Dr. Creepinelli _ annoys Dinah even more than his initial reaction, she has heard Renee call her Bloodinelli, but that has been to her face, and while Helena has rolled her eyes at it, it hasn’t seemed actually hurtful; somehow, Dinah can tell though that this is different, that this is no friendly ribbing among colleagues, and she bristles, the smile she gives the man in response a bit sharper than perhaps could still have been seen as polite.

“I’ll tell them you said Hi”, she says, and he grimaces again; and the moment she turns away from him and he can’t see her face anymore, Dinah frowns, fighting the urge to shake her head as she heads to the stairs leading down to the basement and the lab. 

_ I don’t spend much time with people who aren’t used to dead bodies _ , she remembers what Helena has said at Aaron’s place as she walks down the stairs, and frowns again, now finding herself wondering if the woman actually has much contact to people outside of work; and even here at her job, there seem to be some who don’t like her, if the officer’s reaction is anything to go by.

Then, she reminds herself that she is here on more or less official business, and that Helena’s private life isn’t actually any of her concern; she still takes a moment to make sure none of her thoughts show through her face before she enters the lab, Helena and Renee already there, standing at the doctor’s computer and talking, both of them stopping and looking over at Dinah though when she enters.

“Dinah”, Renee greets her while Helena says “Miss Lance” at the same time; she nods a greeting at them both in response, stepping closer to the screen and peering at it, but not able to gather anything from it, she can tell it’s the report Helena has been talking about, but her medical knowledge doesn’t go far enough to let her figure out what it actually says.

“Glad you could make it”, Renee says, Helena nodding along, apparently having decided to leave the talking to the detective, “Bloodinelli here just has told me what she’s found out about our latest victim.”

The fact that Renee refers to Aaron as  _ victim  _ already tells Dinah that her gut feeling has been right, and that Aaron and possibly the two others as well hasn’t overdosed all by himself; she gives Helena a questioning look, and the doctor clears her throat, but doesn’t say anything, Renee being the one to speak up again after another moment.

“I’ll give you the gist of it and spare you the doc’s medical mumbo-jumbo”, she tells Dinah, Helena rolling her eyes at that wording, but not saying anything, “she’s found the same discrepancies in Aaron’s body as in the two others. No signs for violence, but we do have reason to believe now that someone is out there, giving them overdoses and murdering them that way.”

“Shit”, Dinah lets out, Renee nodding her agreement to that short, but poignant assessment of the situation, “but who would do something like that? And why? It’s not like they got much valuables to steal, even the ones who got jobs…”

“Well, it’s Helena’s and my job to find that out”, Renee tells her, making her nod at once, Helena doing the same, “and you might be able to help, too, you got bigger files on those guys than we do. I want you to look up as much as you can, find things they might have had in common, maybe they went to the same bar or gym or whatever and met their killer there. I know you got a lot on your plate already, but maybe you can talk to their friends, too, they might be more willing to talk to you than to the police…”

“I’ll do what I can”, Dinah says at once, now knowing why Renee has asked her to come here instead of telling her this on the phone, wanting her to help out further, and she’s glad she’ll have the chance to help, “should I get Matt in on it, too?”

“Not for now”, Renee tells her, surprising her a bit as she has been fairly certain the cop would be okay with this idea, “I don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable situation with your boss, but if we officially asked you guys for help, we’d have to go through a shitton of paperwork and waste a lot of time, and you know how slow the bureaucracy can be in this city. No one will be pissed at you if he does find out, but for the moment, I’d like your help to be… unofficial.”

“Alright”, Dinah agrees quickly, she knows Renee is right about the slowness of official ways in Gotham and with how close those three deaths have been together, she doesn’t want to waste time and risk more people dying, and if this means she has to do this without her boss finding out, she’s more than willing to do so, “let’s keep this between the three of us for now, then.”

Both Helena and Renee nod to this, then Renee tells her a few more things Helena has found out; and as the detective talks, Dinah glances at Helena every now and then, the woman either not noticing or pretending to not notice, Dinah once again finding herself wondering about her private life and if she actually has a life outside of her job - and if there is a way for her to find out, something she hopefully will have a chance for while they’ll work together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohoho, Dinah is intrigued XD


	8. Chapter 8

Dinah starts her unofficial work the moment she is back at her office, forgoing the paperwork she is supposed to do to look through the files of the three men who have fallen victim to the killer so far; she reads each and every detail of those files, but can’t find anything they might have had in common, they have worked at different places and the little information the files do have about bars they might have frequented doesn’t yield any results, either.

This annoys Dinah a bit, but she figures it would have been too easy to take one look at the files and pinpoint the place where the culprit has found them and chosen them as a victim; she figures she will have to dig deeper, and remembers Joey’s brother, telling herself she might as well start with him, glad that his number is in Joey’s file, quickly noting it down so she can call him once Matt isn’t around to hear.

She feels a bit bad, keeping this from her boss, but she knows Renee is right, and that the fewer people know about this, the better; not only can they avoid all the official paperwork that way, but she knows Matt is sometimes scatterbrained, and the last thing they need is that he says the wrong thing to the wrong person and word gets out about what is happening, Dinah figuring they have a better chance to catch the killer with the person in question not actually aware of the police working on finding them. 

Now that the bit of research she has been able to do has led to a dead end, she realizes there is not much left she can do for now, until she has a chance to talk to Joey’s brother; and so, she goes back to her work of the day for now, trying hard to focus even though her thoughts keep straying, from the unknown killer out there to Helena and the way the officer has sneered when he has said  _ Creepinelli _ , she’s not sure why this bothers her so much, but it does.

She’s aware that she barely knows Helena, only has met her a few times and they haven’t talked much during those times; still Helena has been nothing but nice to her, a bit weird, perhaps, but not rude or unpleasant, and Dinah can’t quite understand why anyone would then insult her behind her back like that, after all, the police needs the work she does and while Dinah doesn’t know much about pathology and forensics, it seems like Helena is good at what she does.

“Dinah”, Matt distracts her from her ponderings as he pokes his head into her little office, looking a bit apologetic when she jumps a little, “I’m heading to the bodega for coffee, you want some, too?”

“Oh yes please”, Dinah nods at once, she doubts she’ll ever say no to a coffee, “and a ham on rye, if they have that?”

He nods and heads out, and the moment he is out the door, Dinah finds the phone number of Joey’s brother, figuring that now is her chance, and calls him, hoping he will take the call.

He does, to her relief, and when she introduces herself, he remembers her at once, making her oddly glad she has gone to the funeral and has had a chance to meet him; she doesn’t want to give away too much, so she just says there are new developments about what has happened to Joey, and that she has to ask him a few things, and he’s more than willing to help her out.

“Oh, he had a few bars he went to”, the younger man tells her once Dinah has asked him if he knows about any places his brother often has visited or any new friends he has made, “I don’t know about any new friends, but I can tell you about those places, will that help?”

“For sure”, Dinah tells him at once, and he’s quick to tell her the names of three places; Dinah notes them down, figuring she can google to find the addresses, and thanks him for his help, glad that this has lead somewhere, even if it might turn out to be a dead end.

“Thank you”, she says once she has written everything down, “that will help for sure, thanks.”

“No, thank you”, he replies, so sincere it makes her heart clench up, “that you keep looking into this. I know he didn’t relapse and overdose, I just know it.”

“I’ll let you know how this develops”, Dinah promises him, checking her watch and realizing Matt would be back any minute, “thanks again, but I gotta go now, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay”, he says amiably, and Dinah ends the call - and just in time, too, as she can hear Matt outside half a minute later, quickly tucking the paper with the bar names into her pocket, focusing on her computer again just before her boss knocks the door and enters her office.

“There you go”, he says, putting down her coffee and her sandwich, “next round’s on you again.”

She lets out an agreeing noise, and Matt moves back to his own desk, Dinah somewhat grateful he closes the door on the way out; she takes a moment to unwrap her sandwich and to take a sip of coffee, then starts googling the bars and noting down the addresses, knowing she shouldn’t get her hopes up, but feeling as if this is progress anyway.

Once she has found the three addresses - all three of them in the shadier parts of Gotham, to her dismay, but not in areas so bad that she would have started thinking Joey has relapsed after all - she finds her cell and starts typing a text to Renee; after a moment of consideration, she adds Helena’s number to the conversation, figuring the pathologist will be interested in this as well.

_ Might have something _ , she writes, deciding to not beat around the bush,  _ Joey’s brother told me about three bars Joey often went to. Might be worth checking out? _

_ Yeah _ , Renee is the first to reply, Helena following suit ten seconds later with an equally short “Yes.”; and a few seconds after that, another text from Renee comes in, Dinah raising her brows at the content.

_ You shouldn’t go there alone though _ , the detective writes, Dinah figuring this is a good point,  _ but I can’t go with you, someone might recognize me as a cop. Dr. Bertinelli will go with you. _

_ Referring to me by my actual name won’t endear you to me now, _ Helena responds to that, making Dinah smirk at her phone as she can practically hear the woman’s dry tone just from reading the words,  _ and I will? _

_ Yes you will _ , Renee responds at once,  _ she can’t go alone and you know that, come on do me that favour. _

_ Fine _ , Helena responds after almost a full minute has gone by,  _ but you’ll owe me for this one, Montoya. Miss Lance? When and where? _

Dinah texts back a time and place for them to meet, near the first bar on the list she has written down; and once Helena has texted back that she’ll be there and Renee has sent a thumbs up, Dinah tucks her phone away again and smiles to herself, once more feeling as if they are making progress, and not allowing herself to think about why the idea of going to a bar with just Helena makes her stomach flutter oddly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dinah: Oh yes, let's go to a bar together, just the two of us. For WORK of course!


	9. Chapter 9

When Dinah arrives at the bar, Helena is already there, waiting next to the door; she’s standing with her back to Dinah, and apparently hasn’t noticed her yet, Dinah taking the chance given for a closer look.

It’s not the first time she sees Helena in casual wear and not in her labcoat, but the last time this has happened, she has been too upset to pay attention; now though, she’s feeling calm and good, and so she looks, having to admit that she likes what she sees, the simple black jeans and the leather jacket of the same colour not making Helena stand out from a crowd, but Dinah still appreciates the look.

“Dr. Bertinelli”, she calls out once she is close enough to be heard; Helena turns and looks at her, momentarily relieved to see her approach, and it makes Dinah wonder if she has expected her to not show up, a thought she stows away for later as she gives the taller woman a smile.

“Hello”, she greets, Helena giving a brief nod in response, “and thank you for doing this. I’m not sure what we actually are looking for, but ready?”

“I guess so”, Helena says, looking at the bar’s entrance again, and Dinah doesn’t know her well, but she can tell the woman isn’t very comfortable; she’s not quite sure what she can do to make this better, but figures that a smile is a good start, and so, she gives her one as she nods towards the door, asking if they should go inside, then.

Helena nods, and they step into the bar; it’s dingy, and perhaps not as clean as it could have been, Dinah taking note of how Helena glances around, and feeling bad for dragging her into this, it doesn’t take an expert to be able to tell that this isn’t an environment the doctor often finds herself in.

“Come on”, she says, Helena immediately looking at her again, focusing fully on her, Dinah notices, “there’s a free table over there, let’s grab that before anyone else does.”

Thankfully, the table and the seats are moderately clean, and not sticky or visibly dirtied; Helena still keeps glancing around as she sits down and takes off her jacket, Dinah’s brows shooting up as the short sleeved shirt she wears beneath it gives quite the good view of her forearms and biceps, and those look much more muscular and defined than Dinah would have expected. 

“Okay, wow”, she says before she can stop herself, Helena looking at her in confusion, and she blushes as she realizes that now, she has to explain herself, “um… no offense, all other pathologists I know are those in TV shows, and none of those are as… fit as you are.”

“Oh”, Helena lets out, glancing at her arms before she shrugs and looks at Dinah again, “I work out. It takes strength to open a ribcage, you know.”

“...I guess so”, Dinah says, raising her brows again, but not in appreciation; Helena clears her throat, then gives her an apologetic look, and when she speaks up again, Dinah has to lean forward a bit so she can actually hear her, as she’s mumbling now, once more uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry, that was inappropriate”, she says, Dinah feeling bad for her again, “I keep forgetting you’re not used to those… things. Sorry.”

“It’s okay”, Dinah reassures her at once, giving her another smile to show she means it and isn’t just saying it, and having to fight the sudden urge to reach over the table and take Helena’s hand, telling herself they certainly don’t know each other well enough for that, “I’m not bothered by this, honest.”

Helena looks a bit doubtful, but doesn’t ask her if she means it or if she’s sure; Dinah has a moment to give her another smile, then a waiter steps up to their table and asks them what they want to drink, both Dinah and Helena ordering beer, perhaps, Dinah thinks, it would be better to remain sober, but having something non-alcoholic probably would make them stick out and make them memorable, and they both know that wouldn’t be good.

She glances around, not quite sure what she is looking for, Helena leaning back in her seat as she does the same; the waiter appears with their drinks a few minutes later, Dinah smiling at the taller woman as she raises her bottle, glad when Helena smiles back at her after a moment, appearing a bit less uncomfortable now.

“So”, Dinah says, eager to make her feel even more relaxed, “we’re sitting in a bar together, looking for someone who kills people with overdoses while drinking beer, I think this warrants dropping the surnames. If you want.”

“I’m not sure there is a social protocol which dictates this”, Helena says, smiling a bit while Dinah blinks at her choice of words, “but yes, that does sound reasonable.”

“Agreed”, Dinah nods, glad that this has worked out and she hasn’t made Helena feel worse again, “so you can call me Dinah, and I’ll call you Helena.”

“Fine with me”, Helena tells her, taking a sip of her beer before she goes on, “honestly, as long as you don’t call me Bloodinelli or Creepinelli, I’m good.”

“So you know?” Dinah asks before she can stop herself, now feeling bad for her again, quite the whirlwind of emotions, “that they call you… that? I mean, it seems like it’s not malicious when Renee does it but…”

“Of course I know”, Helena tells her, and while she doesn’t seem very bothered by it, Dinah keeps feeling bad for her, “I might be socially inept, but I’m not deaf. They probably think it’s a very clever play on my name, too, when it’s actually quite juvenile.”

“It is”, Dinah agrees with a roll of her eyes, Helena giving her a brief smile, which makes her feel quite glad, “honestly, it’s something I’d expect from teenagers in high school, not from grown men. Just so you know, I never have and never will call you any of that.”

“I appreciate that”, Helena solemnly says, making Dinah smile a bit as well; then, she takes a sip of her beer as she glances around, once more having to realize that she has no idea what or whom she is looking for.

“Man”, she says with a small sigh, toying with her bottle as she lets her gaze wander over the other patrons of the bar, “this would be easier if our bad guy would look obviously evil. You know, like Walter White when he’s bald or something.”

“I don’t know who that is”, Helena lets her know, then makes a face, and even in the somewhat dim light of the bar, Dinah can see the slight blush colouring her cheeks, “um… I’m sorry, as I said, I’m not… very good at these social things.”

“No worries”, Dinah tries to reassure her in response, Helena clearing her throat, still appearing a bit awkward despite Dinah’s best efforts, “I’m not judging. You’re good company.”

Once again Helena looks doubtful, but doesn’t question her; she just takes another sip of her drink, then looks around the bar again, Dinah doing the same, glancing at the doctor every now and then and smiling to herself - she truly enjoys Helena’s company, and while she knows they are here for a dark reason, she’s glad they get to spend this time together, part of her hoping there’ll be another chance for them to do so in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awkward Helena is awkward, but luckily, Dinah doesn't mind. xD


	10. Chapter 10

Unfortunately, the visit to the bar yields no results, as neither Dinah, nor Helena can spot anyone act suspiciously; they still have two more places to check out though, and agree to take a look at one of them in the next evening, settling a time for their meeting there once they have left the bar and are standing on the sidewalk.

“Thank you again for helping with this”, Dinah says once the time and place for the next evening have been agreed upon, “I’m glad I don’t have to do this on my own, and I had a good time.”

“Yes, so did I”, Helena lets her know, and Dinah can tell she means it, a slight blush colouring the taller woman’s cheeks again as she goes on, “I don’t do this often, but I did enjoy it with you, even though we were here on a mission. Let’s hope we will have more luck tomorrow.”

Dinah nods her agreement, then momentarily isn’t quite sure what to do next - she doesn’t want to just walk off, but a handshake seems too formal while a hug seems inappropriate for how well they know each other, even if they are on a first name basis now.

Finally, she settles on reaching out and briefly touching Helena’s hand, figuring this is a good solution as it’s between a handshake and a hug; Helena looks surprised for a moment, then, to Dinah’s relief, smiles at her, and all at once, Dinah randomly finds herself wondering what it would be to go on an actual date with her, a thought she quickly pushes aside as she reminds herself that this has been strictly for business and that they are on the lookout for a murderer.

“I’ll see you tomorrow”, she says, making Helena nod at once, “get home safely, yeah?”

“You too”, the doctor then says, and after giving her another smile, Dinah does turn and heads off; she figures Helena does the same, but when she glances back over her shoulder as she walks, the doctor is still there, watching her go, and this makes her feel all warm and tingly inside.

As she walks to the nearest bus stop, her phone vibrates in her pocket, and she pulls it out to check, not really surprised when it’s a text from Renee; she hasn’t sent it to the group chat, Dinah notices, only to her, and she’s a bit curious when she pushes the button to display it.

_ How’d it go, _ the detective wants to know, and Dinah wonders why she doesn’t ask in the group, until she reads on,  _ found out anything? The doctor been civil? _

_ Found nothing, _ Dinah decides to answer that first, wondering why Renee would ask her if Helena has been civil, the doctor might be a bit awkward or even weird at times, but she never has been rude to her or in her presence,  _ and what do you mean, civil, she’s been perfectly nice. We’ll check the next place out tomorrow. _

_ No offense meant _ , Renee writes back quickly, Dinah slowing down and glancing up every now and then as she walks with her phone in hand, not wanting to bump into anyone,  _ she’s just not good with people. Glad it worked well. Keep me updated about how it goes tomorrow. _

_ Will do _ , Dinah writes back, then puts her phone away again, just as she arrives at the bus stop; she has to wait a few minutes, thinking back to the time at the bar as she does so, a bit miffed that they haven’t found out anything there, but at least, she’s had a nice time with Helena, she reasons, the doctor having relaxed noticeably around her after a while.

_ The beer probably helped with that _ , she ponders as she waits for the bus, glancing down the road every now and then, hoping to see said bus approach,  _ she did get more relaxed after half a bottle. The beer, and maybe the fact that you didn’t react oddly to her more weird moments. _

And she hasn’t even had to think about her reactions, she ponders as she glances down the road again, glad when she sees the bus up ahead now, she feels tired by now and wants to get home and into bed, perhaps it’s a side effect of her job, but while Helena herself has been all too aware of her weird moments, Dinah herself truly hasn’t been bothered by them, finding them endearing instead of off-putting.

As the bus pulls up, stops and she gets in, Dinah ponders how often it happens, that people find Helena off-putting and strange and react badly, and perhaps, she thinks to herself, that is why the doctor actually isn’t good at social things, maybe having stopped trying after too many bad reactions.

Right then and there, Dinah decides to try her best so Helena will have someone in her life who’s not working with her, once the killer has been found and if the doctor will let her; and she hopes that this will work out; she has the feeling Helena likes her and hopes this will turn out to be right, she has enjoyed spending time with the other woman and would like to repeat this in the future, just for fun and not with a killer on the loose, smiling to herself as she thinks of the time Helena and she might hopefully spend together.

* * *

The next workday brings nothing unusual for Dinah, and thankfully, no new murder victims, either; she’s kept fairly busy during the day, as always, and looks forward to some downtime with Helena once she heads out to meet the doctor at bar number two, even though she knows they are going there in search for a killer and not just for fun.

Still she looks forward to it, smiling when she approaches the bar and once again Helena is already there, this time noting her approach and giving a little wave; Dinah waves back at her, then says “hi” once she is close enough to be heard without raising her voice, Helena nodding in response, a bit belatedly smiling back at her, but Dinah figures that a late smile is better than no smile. 

“How are you?” she asks as they move to the bar’s entrance together; Helena shrugs, then tells her she is fine before she returns the question, Dinah letting her know that she is good, as well, adding that she’s had quite the busy day, not surprised when Helena nods and tells her it’s been busy for her, too. 

Thankfully, she keeps any gruesome details of her work to herself, just nodding when Dinah asks if they should go inside, then; once again, Dinah leads the way, Helena right behind her, but as they find a free table and sit down, Dinah can tell that Helena is less uncomfortable today than she has been the previous day, and she’s glad about it, she has enjoyed herself the previous evening and she wants Helena to feel the same way.

She spots a few familiar faces as she gets comfortable, people she has worked with in the past and some she still is working with; those who see her as well wave or nod at her, Helena picking up on those gestures quickly, but then, Dinah figures, she has to be good at picking up small things in her job, so it shouldn’t be a surprise she has noticed this, as well.

“People you’ve worked with?” Helena wants to know, not appearing surprised when Dinah nods; and as the three victims so far all have been people who have worked with her or with her boss, Dinah figures it can’t hurt to keep an eye on them during the evening, see if anyone suspicious might approach one of them.

She discreetly points a few of those she knows out to Helena, and tells her about her idea to keep an eye on them; Helena nods her agreement, and as they start talking about books and movies to keep up the appearance of two friends out for a drink, both Helena and Dinah glance at the patrons Dinah knows from her work, both of them hoping that perhaps, this evening will bring better results than the previous one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More hanging out at bars. For WORK! XD


	11. Chapter 11

To Dinah’s dismay, nothing useful has come from their trip to the second bar; Helena and she have tried their best to keep tabs on the persons she has worked with, but if the killer has been there and has found a victim, they have been good at hiding it, and neither Helena, nor Dinah have seen any of the people the social worker knows leave with anyone, those who have left have done so on their own and a few had been there still by the time the two women had left.

They have decided to check out the third bar as well, tonight, and have set a time again to meet there; and until then, Dinah is kept busy with her work once more, and figures it’s the same for Helena.

She has another appointment with Cassandra, after the girl’s school day has ended, and is glad that at least, Cass has stayed out of trouble since the last time Renee has picked her up; and she talks to one of the guys she has seen at the bar the previous evening, asks him if he has made any new friends lately, but doesn’t learn anything helpful from him.

After that appointment, she heads out to get food and coffee from the bodega, as today, it is her turn; it takes her a bit longer than usual, as quite a few people are there with the same intentions, but finally, Dinah has sandwiches and coffee for Matt and for herself, her stomach rumbling as she walks back to the office.

“Hey”, Matt greets her as she enters, thanking her when she hands him the sandwich and the coffee before he nods towards her office, “your desk phone rang while you were out. It was a Dr. Bertinelli? Didn’t tell me what she wanted, just that she wants to talk to you and that I should ask you to call her back. So there we go. Call her back please.”

“Oh, yeah, I will, thank you”, Dinah says, hoping that Helena hasn’t called to cancel, but figuring she will find out once she calls her back; she’s eager to do so right away, but before she can retreat to her office, Matt gives her a questioning look, and speaks up before she can step away.

“Isn’t she the pathologist of GCPD?” he wants to know, and Dinah has to struggle to keep her face neutral, “how do you know her?”

“Oh, I met her when I went to see Detective Montoya”, she lets him know, her mind racing as she tries to come up with something, she feels bad for lying, but their work is still unofficial, and she doesn’t want to get in trouble, “we sort of… hit it off…? We’re going out.”

_ Shit, shit, shit _ , she internally berates herself, this can lead to a very embarrassing situation if she doesn’t tell Helena, but might turn out just as embarrassing if she does tell her, but it’s too late to take the words back, Matt looking a bit surprised, then smiling, making Dinah feel even worse with his response.

“Oh, congrats”, he says, Dinah hoping her smile looks more genuine than it feels, “we both work too much, you deserve some downtime with a nice person. Good luck then and let’s hope she’s not calling to cancel a date.”

“Yeah”, Dinah nods, “so I better go and call her. Just, to make sure, you know.”

Matt nods and focuses on his work again, clearly having bought the little tale she has spun; she still feels bad for lying to him, but pushes those thoughts aside as she makes her way to the office and quickly calls Helena, glad when at least, this works out as planned, the doctor taking the call fairly quickly.

“Hi”, Dinah greets her, “it’s me, Matt told me you called?”

“Oh, yes, hello Dinah”, Helena greets her, Dinah smiling a bit at the sudden warmth in her voice, compared to her rather formal tone when she’s answered the phone, “thanks for your call. Um, I know we said we’d meet at half past eight today, but I might not be able to make that time, is half past nine okay, too?”

“Yeah, sure”, Dinah lets her know at once, just glad that Helena isn’t cancelling completely, “I’ll meet you there at half past nine then.”

“Good”, Helena says, and Dinah wonders if she can really hear the smile on her face or if she is imagining it, “see you later then. Have a good day until then.”

“You too”, Dinah tells her, then ends the call; she takes a moment to listen, making sure she can hear Matt type away at his computer, then pulls out her cell phone and sends a text to Helena, making sure to send it just to her and not to the group chat, she’s already embarrassed enough as it is and doesn’t need to inform Renee about her mishap, as well.

_ My boss asked how I know you _ , she types, grimacing to herself, somewhat glad she can’t see Helena’s reaction to what she is about to reveal,  _ and I sorta panicked and told him we’re going out. Like, on a date? Just so you know, in case he blabs and someone asks you or something. And sorry, I couldn’t think of anything else fast enough. _

She toys with her phone as she waits for a response, hoping Helena won’t be offended or even angry at her for this; it seems to take unreasonably long for a response to come, but finally, the phone vibrates in her hand, Dinah feeling nervous when she pushes the button to display the message Helena has sent.

_ No problem _ , the doctor has written, to Dinah’s relief apparently not upset,  _ thanks for the heads up.  _

Dinah holds back a sigh of relief at the answer, then puts her phone away again and focuses on her work once more; she’s glad Helena isn’t angry at her for the story she’s made up, but as she works, she finds herself thinking about the sentence  _ we’re going out  _ \- and about the fact that saying this has made her feel quite warm and tingly inside, a clear sign that she doesn’t want this to be a lie, made up to cover what Helena and she really are doing.

_ Maybe I should ask her out _ , she ponders, looking at her screen without really seeing what’s on it,  _ once we found the killer.  _

She smiles to herself at this idea, liking the thought of actually going out with Helena and not just making it up so her boss won’t find out she’s secretly trying to find a murderer; she does have the feeling that Helena likes her, too, and while she can’t know for sure, she also feels that Helena might not be averse to the idea of them actually going out, judging from her reaction when Dinah has told her she has made that claim to cover their work.

_ Only one way to find out _ , she tells herself, then forces those thoughts out of her mind so she can focus on her work properly, still smiling to herself as she works though, quite confident that she won’t be rejected once she does ask Helena out for real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had fun imagining the look on Helena's face when she reads that text XD


	12. Chapter 12

Once again, Helena is already there when Dinah arrives at the third and last bar on their list; the doctor gives her a brief smile as Dinah approaches her, Dinah smiling back at her while she waves hello, stopping in front of her, the smirk Helena gives her a somewhat new sight, and once which is explained when the doctor speaks up.

“So”, Helena says, her obvious amusement at her own words making Dinah feel embarrassed all over again, “this is a fake date now, then, in case we run into your boss? I’m not one to watch romantic comedies, but I have heard that those happen often in such movies.”

“I panicked, okay”, Dinah says with a small groan, amazed when Helena actually lets out a short laugh in response, realizing this is the first time she hears the woman laugh, and while she is being made fun of, she does like the sound, “he asked how I knew you and that was the first thing I thought of. And yeah, I really don’t see you watching romcoms.”

“I feel flattered though”, Helena lets her know, still with that amused sparkle in her eyes, “that your first thought was  _ we’re going out _ and not  _ I know her cause we looked at a corpse together _ . Most people who know me would have gone for the second option, you know.”

“Yeah, I’m not like most people”, Dinah is quick to respond, Helena smirking again, only to go wide-eyed when the social worker continues, “and you’re flattered? That’s good to know, how about we go on an actual date sometime soon then?”

“Oh, um”, Helena stammers, caught off guard by the question, and making it Dinah’s turn to feel amused, “yeah, we… we could do that. You are aware of what you might be getting into, yes? I’ve told you, I’m not good with social things. And certainly not with dating. At the last date I went to, I managed to offend the woman so horribly, she threw her drink in my face and left.”

“What”, Dinah says, blinking, she has witnessed Helena’s more weird moments, but the doctor never has said anything actually offensive, “what did you say to her?”

“I said that I hadn’t read her favourite book because I don’t waste time on such drivel”, Helena tells her, Dinah raising her brows again, “it was some fantasy romance thing, with shiny vampires.”

“Ooooh”, Dinah lets out, Helena giving her a confused look and prompting her to elaborate, “you insulted a Twilight fan, yeah, that is never good. But no worries, I’m fairly sure you can’t say anything that would make me throw my drink in your face, I did have a good time with you the past two evenings.”

“I had a good time, too”, Helena solemnly tells her, making her smile, “but we are on the lookout for our culprit still, so… shall we go inside, then?”

Dinah nods her agreement to that, and they enter the bar together; once again, they find a free table and sit down, Dinah not quite able to stop smiling as asking Helena out has gone so well, now quite glad that she had made up that excuse to Matt, happy that it has led to this.

* * *

“Well, that didn’t go anywhere”, Dinah sighs in the next day, down at the forensic lab with Renee and Helena after the detective has called her and has asked her to come so they could discuss their next steps, “would have been too easy I suppose, to just spot some bad guy with a black hat and a goatee and know that is our culprit.”

“Yeah, I know”, Renee says with a sigh of her own, “and your clients? Those lead nowhere, either?”

“So far”, Dinah has to admit, not happy with this, but then, it has only been a few days since they’ve begun looking for an actual killer, and she knows that the bad guys are only caught that fast in the TV shows she sometimes watches, “I’ll keep asking around, but… Can’t promise anything.”

“Keep trying”, Renee tells her, making her nod at once, “might not lead anywhere, but it can’t hurt. At least, we didn’t get any more overdoses since the guy you found in his home.”

“Aaron”, Helena helpfully supplies, earning a brief smile from Dinah as she nods; Renee lets out an agreeing noise as well, then lets them know that she has work to do, only to stop dead in her tracks on the way out when she hears what Helena says to Dinah.

“So”, the doctor wants to know, either not aware that Renee is still within earshot or not caring, “you figure out when you wanna do this proper date? And where?”

“Friday?” Dinah suggests in response, from the corner of her eye noticing how Renee turns back to stare at them, looking so flabbergasted it almost makes her laugh, “I know a very nice Thai place, if you like that, how about dinner?”

Helena nods her agreement to that, and they settle on seven as their time to meet; smiling, Dinah lets Helena know she’s looking forward to it, then gets going again as well, aware that she also has work to do and that her paperwork won’t magically vanish, no matter how much she wants it to.

“Okay”, Renee says once they are out of the lab and are walking up the stairs, “am I imagining things, or did Bloodinelli and you really just talk about going out on an actual date?”

“Yeah”, Dinah confirms, amused at how Renee blinks at hearing that, “we did. Don’t look so surprised, we had a good time while on the lookout for a nasty killer, I imagine we’ll have an even better one on an actual date.”

“Okay, wow”, Renee says, raising her brows, “I did not expect that to happen when I introduced the two of you, but congrats, I guess? You know she can be a bit… peculiar, right?”

“Yeah”, Dinah says again, holding back the urge to roll her eyes, knowing Renee means well, “but I also know she can be funny, and she’s kind. And as an extra bonus, she’s built quite well, too, have you ever seen her in a t-shirt?”

“No”, Renee replies with a small laugh, Dinah smirking at the detective’s amusement, “but good for her, I suppose? And for you. Just… don’t tell her I said that, but be nice to her, alright? She doesn’t seem bothered by it, but I know she doesn’t have much human contact outside of her work. And even those are mostly dead people.”

“I like her”, Dinah says, and it’s a simple statement, but it’s true, something Renee obviously can see as her gaze softens and she smiles, “or I wouldn’t have asked her out. So no need for you to give me the shovel talk.”

“Good”, Renee smirks, clapping her on the back and making her smile again as well, “best of luck to the two of you, then. And we’ll keep you posted about anything new happening in our little case.”

Dinah nods and thanks her, then heads out of the station and back to her office, already looking forward to Friday and the date with Helena, sure that everything will go well and work out just fine between the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha Dinah, way to turn being teased around XD


	13. Chapter 13

The days until Friday go by fast, both Dinah and Helena kept busy by their work; they still find time to text back and forth though, asking how the other one is doing and exchanging tidbits about their days, Helena once more keeping the more gruesome details to herself. 

She does tell Dinah that there are no new victims of overdose, only “the usual”, and as Dinah learns when she asks, this means gunshots and stab wounds; it’s fitting for Gotham, she thinks to herself when she reads this, but at least, none of her clients has fallen victim to this unknown killer, and she wonders if the person is actually still active or if they somehow have figured out that the police has become aware of them and has stopped.

She would have preferred the culprit to get arrested, but if someone being on their trail forces them into stopping, Dinah figures she can live with that, too; after all, it will mean that no one else will be killed, and if her help has led to that, she figures they have done good, the three of them, unofficial as their work has been.

_ Alright _ , she texts to Helena as she shuts down her computer, getting ready to leave for the day,  _ I’m done, I’m heading home. Have a good evening. Date time tomorrow! :D _

_ Looking forward to it _ , Helena’s response comes,  _ fair warning, might yawn a lot. Just got in a bunch of people, gang fight gone wrong. _

_ I’ll buy you a coffee if you yawn too much _ , Dinah texts back, then pauses as an idea hits her; she smiles to herself as she tucks her phone away, figuring it’s a good idea, waving goodbye to Matt as she heads out, but not going home as she’s been planning, stopping at the bodega instead to buy coffee and cupcakes, driving carefully so she won’t spill anything once she has carried the items to her car.

Thankfully, it’s not far to the station, and she figures Helena will have a microwave in her lab, just in case the coffee does get cold; by the time she arrives at the station, the coffee is still lukewarm, and to her relief, no cops question why she’s there this time, a few of them glancing her way, but not saying anything, not even when she walks right to the stairs leading down to the lab, armed with coffee and cupcakes.

“Helena?” she calls out as she approaches the lab’s main room, not wanting to startle the doctor in case she’s deeply focused on her work, “hey, it’s me!”

“Over here!” she hears Helena from somewhere farther back, the slight surprise in her voice making Dinah smile; she moves to where she has heard Helena, only to falter as the doctor is elbow-deep in a dead man’s torso, looking up at her as she approaches, and giving her an apologetic look when she notices the brief look of dismay on Dinah’s face.

“Sorry”, she adds, making a face of her own, “I suppose I should have warned you? What is it, did something happen?”

She pulls her hands back, and removes the bloodied gloves while Dinah shakes her head, holding up the coffee and the little paper bag, making a point of not looking at the dead guy as she answers Helena’s question.

“Nothing happened”, she reassures her, “but when you said you might have a long night, I figured I’d drop by with something to make that a bit easier. Hope you like cupcakes.”

“Oh”, Helena lets out, then smiles a bit as she nods, “yeah, I do, thanks. That guy liked cupcakes too by the way, I was checking his stomach contents when you… arrived…”

She notices Dinah glance at the guy in question, and makes a face, pulling off her labcoat as there are traces of blood on the sleeves, too; and when she sighs, Dinah looks at her again, immediately feeling bad at the guilty look Helena shoots her.

“And that was inappropriate again”, she says, awkwardly scratching the back of her head, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay”, Dinah reassures her, not wanting her to feel bad, “I mean, it’s your job, I’m just not… really used to that. But I guess that might change if we spend time together, so no worries.”

“Especially if you surprise me at the lab with coffee and pastries”, Helena points out, to Dinah’s relief smiling a bit; nodding, the social worker smiles back at her, then hands her said coffee and one of the cupcakes, moving so that she stands with her back to the dead guy now, she might get used to this in a while, but she really doesn’t need to look into his stomach while eating a cupcake. 

“Those are good”, Helena comments after having taken the first bite, Dinah nodding her agreement, “really tasty, thanks.”

“Welcome”, Dinah smiles at her, taking a bite of her own pastry before she goes on, “I got them from the bodega near the office, Matt and I always joke that the two of us would be enough to keep them in business.”

“Good to know where it is”, Helena comments, finishing her cupcake in record time and washing it down with coffee, “in case I want those great cupcakes again. And drop in for a surprise visit.”

“Just knock before you enter, in case my door is closed”, Dinah advises, making the doctor smirk with what she says next, “cause I might be with a client if the door’s not open, and the people I work with are alive, it could startle them if a woman in a labcoat just barges in.”

“I don’t wear this coat outside the lab”, Helena points out, making Dinah laugh as of course she’d focus on that first, “but yeah, I’ll knock, thanks for the heads up.”

She smiles, and looks so adorable that all Dinah wants to do is lean in and kiss her; she fights the urge though, telling herself that this is not the best environment for their first kiss, and they  _ are _ going on a date tomorrow, certainly, she can wait until then and not pounce Helena here in her lab, right next to a dead guy.

“Well”, she thus says, not quite trusting in her self control enough, especially if there’s a chance of Helena giving her another one of those smiles, “I guess I better get going so you can finish up here. Wouldn’t do to keep you from working, then you’d have to stay even longer and truly might yawn the whole time during our date.”

“Don’t take it personal in case I do”, Helena tells her, glancing towards the other operating tables in the lab, “I still got four more guys to do. Oh, that came out wrong.”

Dinah bursts out laughing at that, and Helena finds herself chuckling as well - she’s not quite used to making people laugh, but she can tell Dinah isn’t actually laughing at her in any mean way, and she feels quite conflicting emotions when the social worker tells her she really has to go now, once she has calmed down again.

She’s a bit glad, because that means she can get back to work and get things done; she’s also dismayed though by Dinah leaving, and when Dinah smiles at her as she gets ready to leave, she feels an almost overwhelming urge to kiss her.

_ Not here, not now _ , she reprimands herself, unaware that Dinah has had very similar feelings minutes ago,  _ date tomorrow, if you can work up the nerve, you can kiss her then. Or maybe she will kiss me. I wonder if she wants to kiss me? _

“Well”, Dinah interrupts her train of thought, and she’s glad about it, “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Looking forward to it.”

“Me too”, Helena says at once, earning another smile; and then, Dinah does turn and walks off, Helena watching her go, only going back to work once the other woman actually has left the lab, smiling to herself as she does so.

She can’t wait for tomorrow, and for their date, and she can’t remember the last time she has looked forward so much to spending time with someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I want cupcakes, too. XD


	14. Chapter 14

Once again, Helena is already there when Dinah arrives at the restaurant, and already from afar, Dinah can tell that the doctor is nervous; this only endears Helena more to her, and she smiles a hopefully calming smile at her as she steps up to her, glad when Helena smiles back, despite her obvious nervousness.

“Hi”, the doctor returns her greeting, blushing a bit as she goes on, “you, um, you look lovely.”

“Thank you”, Dinah beams at her, Helena looking a little relieved at the compliment having been well received, “so do you. You make that labcoat work, but you look even better like this.”

She raises her brows in appreciation, and while Helena isn’t quite sure how her casual wear of jeans and t-shirt looks good, she figures it’s only polite to thank Dinah for the compliment, and does so; and afterwards, they enter the restaurant together, Dinah having called and reserved a table, as she really hasn’t wanted the date to have a bad start with them not getting a seat and thus, no food.

The waiter leads them to their table, then hands them both a menu before he retreats so they can look at it in peace; knowing the place, Dinah recommends a few dishes to Helena, feeling oddly pleased when they do order and Helena chooses one of her recommendations.

“So”, she says once the waiter has brought their drinks, and they now have to wait for the food, “I’m curious. How’d you choose pathology and forensics?”

“My parents both were doctors”, Helena lets her know, Dinah immediately taking note of how Helena speaks of that in the past tense and wondering if her parents have retired or if something more dreadful has happened to them, “both surgeons, and I sort of wanted to follow their footsteps. You have seen my people skills though, so working with actual living people wasn’t a good idea, so I went into pathology instead.”

Dinah can tell this isn’t the whole story, her own job has taught her to notice when someone is holding things back; she figures that a possibly tragic backstory might be too heavy for the first actual date though and so she just smiles, deciding not to ask, reaching over the table instead so she can grasp Helena’s hand, the doctor looking momentarily surprised, then delighted at the touch.

“You’re exaggerating”, she tells Helena, the taller woman raising her brows in response, “your people skills aren’t that bad. You make yourself sound as if you only grunt and grumble at people all the time and scare them off for no reason.”   


“I’m not”, Helena claims, Dinah looking sceptical in response, “you’re just impressively good at handling… me. I know I’m weird, and I know most people find me strange and off-putting, but it seems you’re not among those.”

“Well, I find you interesting, and funny, and kind”, Dinah tells her, smiling when Helena blushes a bit at the praise, “and while you did startle me when we first met, I’ve never thought you’re off-putting.”

“You’re an exception then”, Helena tells her, not appearing to be very bothered by this though, even smiling a bit, “and I have to say, I am glad about that.”

Dinah smiles at her in response, and squeezes her hand; then, the waiter makes a return with their food, and she pulls her hand back so they can eat, hoping she hasn’t imagined the brief flicker of disappointment on Helena’s face at the loss of contact.

“Oh”, Helena lets out after the first bite of her meal, sounding delighted, her tone making Dinah smile yet again, “this is delicious. Good recommendation.”

“Glad you like it”, Dinah tells her, making it Helena’s turn to smile; then, the doctor asks her how she has gotten into social work, figuring this is a safe topic after Dinah has asked her about her choice of job first, the other woman shrugging, munching down a forkful of food before she responds.

“I grew up in one of the shadier parts of town”, she lets Helena know, momentarily wondering if this is true for Helena, too, then realizes this is unlikely, if both her parents have been surgeons, “and that might sound like a line from a cheesy movie, but my mother and I, we didn’t have it easy, and when I got older, I wanted to do something to help people in the same situation.”

“It doesn’t sound cheesy”, Helena seriously tells her, Dinah feeling her cheeks heat up at that, not quite sure why it makes her blush, but it does, “that’s a good and noble thought, and you help people.”

“So do you though”, Dinah points out, “you help catching bad guys. So we both help, only in different ways.”

Helena smiles and nods, then Dinah changes the topic by asking her what books she has read lately, she has learned during their time at the various bars that, while Helena is not into shiny vampires, she does read a lot, and the doctor is more than happy to answer her.

They have pleasant conversation as they eat, moving from one topic to the next without any awkward pauses, something Helena is a bit amazed at as usually, she often ends up sitting in uncomfortable silence in any sort of social situation; it’s easy to talk to Dinah though, she already has felt so during their times at the bars, and it’s the same now, her initial nervousness at the date having faded away as she has gotten much more comfortable.

They finish their food and have a just as tasty dessert, then Helena pays, insisting on doing so at Dinah’s protest; not wanting to have Helena pay for everything, Dinah then declares that there is a nice bar nearby, and that she at least wants to buy Helena a drink there in exchange for the meal, the taller woman nodding her agreement as they get up from their chairs.

As they step out of the restaurant, Dinah feels daring again, and reaches out to grasp Helena’s hand; immediately, Helena’s fingers curl around hers, and that makes her smile, convincing her further that it’ll be a good idea to kiss Helena at the end of the date.

_ But then, why wait until the end _ , she then ponders as they walk, the neon sign of the bar appearing up ahead,  _ she likes me, I can tell. Come on Dinah, grow a pair. _

She stops walking, Helena doing the same a second later, giving her a questioning look; clearing her throat, Dinah moves so that she is facing her fully, hoping her hands don’t start to sweat now as she speaks up.

“You know”, she starts, Helena looking at her curiously, but not saying anything, “I thought about waiting with doing this until the end of the date but then I realized there’s no reason to wait. So I’ll just do it now.”

Helena looks as if she wants to ask her what she wants to do, but Dinah answers her before she actually can ask, taking a step closer to her, letting go of her hand so she can wrap both arms around her, Helena realizing where this is a going a mere second before Dinah’s lips are on hers.

She needs a moment to realize that this is really happening, then regains enough presence of mind to actually kiss Dinah back, moving to return the embrace, as well; the kiss remains fairly innocent, but still Helena finds herself grinning like a fool when Dinah does pull back, an expression she sees mirrored on the other woman’s face.

“I’m happy you did that”, she says, after having needed to clear her throat, “I, um, I wanted to do that yesterday already at the lab, but I figured that’s not a good place for kissing.”

“I wanted to do it yesterday, too”, Dinah admits, Helena’s smile widening in response, until she wonders if the corners of her mouth might touch her ears any moment, “but I didn’t do it for the same reason. But, well, we’re not at the lab now, so…”

She kisses Helena again, and feels her heart skip an excited beat when Helena pulls her even closer as she kisses her back, happy how well this is going and certain things will only get better for them in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smoooochies :D


	15. Chapter 15

The bar is fairly packed, but that’s not a surprise, considering it’s Friday night; there’s no table with seats free at the moment, but Dinah and Helena do manage to grab two seats at the bar, and figure that this will do until they’ll manage to snatch a table.

“Alright”, Dinah says once she has gotten comfortable, “first round’s on me, what do you want?”

“Beer please”, Helena tells her, and after a nod, Dinah manages to flag down the barkeep and orders two beers; they get the drinks fairly quickly, especially considering how full the place is, and Dinah pays before she hands one of them to Helena, giving her a smile as she raises her own bottle.

“To a good date”, she says, making the doctor smirk, “I’m having a really good time tonight, thank you.”

“So am I”, Helena reassures her, making her smile as well, “and I have to thank you, because you’ve actually had the courage to ask me out. I never would have dared.”

“Awww”, Dinah lets out, only melting further when Helena blushes again; before she can say anything else though, a familiar voice says “Hey Dinah” behind her, and she turns, not really surprised to see her boss standing there, it is a bar they often have gone to for a beer after work after all, after days which have been exceptionally taxing and tiring.

“Hey Matt”, she returns the greeting, “how’s it going? Helena, this is Matt, my boss. Matt, this is Dr. Helena Bertinelli, my date.”

“Pleasure”, Helena says politely as they shake hands; Matt nods, then smiles, glancing at Dinah in a slightly teasing way when he responds.

“Same”, he lets the doctor know, “so you’re the famed Dr. Bertinelli, I’ve heard much about you.”

“From Dinah, I hope”, Helena replies, Dinah snorting at her next words, “because if you’ve heard from anyone else, those things might not have been very flattering.”

“Yeah, from Dinah”, he says, raising his brows, “so no worries there, it was all very flattering. Well, I’ll leave the two of you to your date, have a good time.”

“Thanks, you too”, Dinah says, making him smile and shrug before he retreats, apparently spotting someone else he knows as he waves at someone; not paying attention to him anymore, Dinah focuses on Helena again, taking note of how the doctor glances at Matt’s back somewhat nervously before her gaze returns to her.

“I hope that wasn’t too strange”, she says, appearing a bit awkward again, and Dinah’s heart flies out to her, “perhaps that wasn’t the best thing to say to your boss? He probably thinks you’re dating a weirdo now.”

“Nah”, Dinah says at once, Helena giving her a doubtful look, and prompting her to reassure her further, “that wasn’t strange at all, don’t worry. And even if it was, he might be my boss, but it’s none of his business whom I go out with.”

Helena has a moment to nod, as this makes sense, then Dinah leans in for a brief, but gentle kiss, quietly reassuring her that it truly is okay; and when she pulls back again, Helena does look much less uncomfortable, smiling again, the social worker smiling back at her as she puts down her bottle and takes hold of her hand again.

“I don’t care what my boss thinks about me dating you”, she says, eager to get her point across, figuring this is something Helena will otherwise think about a lot, considering how regularly she points out her own social shortcomings, “or what anyone else thinks. Alright? I like you, I enjoy being with you, and that’s all that’s important.”

“I enjoy being with you, too”, Helena lets her know, swallowing noticeably before she goes on, “it’s been a while since I’ve met anyone who’s been so… fine with… how I am. So thank you.”

“I like you the way you are”, Diah reassures her, easily sensing that worries about this have been weighing quite heavily on Helena, and wondering how often people actually have rejected her for this, for something she doesn’t really have any control over, “and there’s nothing you got to thank me for.”

Helena smiles a bit, and shrugs, she doesn’t quite agree with this, but she doesn’t want to argue about it now, either, and perhaps jeopardize how well their date is going; and so, instead of saying anything, she’s the one to lean in for a kiss this time, barely able to believe her luck when she feels Dinah kiss her back and how the social worker’s hand slides up her arm and to her back, feeling content and happy, only now admitting to herself how much she has missed being with someone like this.

* * *

After having a few more drinks at the bar, and after having enjoyed quite a few kisses, Dinah and Helena end their date at a time reasonable enough that Dinah can still go home by bus; Helena walks her to the bus stop, winning them some more time to spend together, and while she is a bit tired at this point, from both the alcohol and a taxing work week, she hopes the bus will take a while to arrive, if only so it will mean a few more minutes with Dinah.

“I had a really good time”, Dinah lets her know, making her smile, a sight Dinah can’t get enough of, “we have to repeat this as soon as possible.”

“Agreed”, Helena nods at once, then steps closer so she can put both arms around Dinah, who returns the embrace immediately, “best time I’ve had in a while. There’s a really good pizza place not far from the station, maybe we could check that out next time?”

“Of course the woman named Bertinelli suggests Italian”, Dinah teases, grinning when Helena lets out a small laugh in response, she has managed to make her laugh a few times during their date and has enjoyed hearing that every time, “but yeah, that sounds good, I love pizza. Like every reasonable human being.”

“I prefer pasta”, Helena says, completely deadpan and serious, and Dinah actually gapes at her; Helena looks back at her all serious for a few more moments - before the corners of her mouth twitch, and she can’t fight the smile any longer, sounding amused when she speaks up again.

“I’m kidding”, she tells Dinah, laughing at how the other woman practically sighs in relief, “I love pizza, too.”

“Don’t do that”, Dinah strictly tells her, glad when Helena doesn’t take this wrong way and gets worried, but snickers again; after a moment, she smiles as well, then pulls her in for a kiss, and just when they pull apart again, the bus appears in the distance, Dinah a bit dismayed by this as she would have loved a few more minutes with Helena, but then telling herself it’s okay, they will go on another date soon and have more time together.

“So”, she thus says, “here comes my ride. Get home safely, yeah? Text me when you’re home.”   


“You too”, Helena replies, stealing another brief kiss just when the bus pulls up; Dinah gets in and, once she has found a seat, looks out the window so she can wave at Helena, the doctor smiling in response, remaining where she is and only walking away once the bus has driven off and is out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good first date for the two of them :D


	16. Chapter 16

Dinah sleeps in the next day, and when she wakes, she feels well rested and good, thinking back to her date with Helena and smiling to herself; as promised, the doctor has texted her when she’s gotten home the previous night, and they have wished each other a good night, Dinah now grabbing her phone, momentarily wondering if she might seem needy or clingy if she already texts again, then deciding that Helena will be happy to hear from her and not think she’s being weird.

_ Good morning _ , she thus types,  _ hope you had a good night’s sleep? _

She figures it will take a bit until the answer comes in, but carries her phone to the kitchen with her; there, she puts it on the counter and starts making coffee, and just when she gets done and the machine starts working, her phone buzzes, and she feels like a teenager with a crush when her heart skips a beat in response.

_ Good morning to you, too _ , Helena has written back, Dinah smiling at her screen,  _ I did, thanks for asking. I hope you did, too? _

_ Yeah, _ Dinah is quick to type out a reply, not caring anymore if this makes her seem clingy or weird, considering how fast Helena has sent her answer,  _ probably slept well because of our awesome date. Really gotta repeat this soon. _

_ Agreed _ , Helena once again is fast to reply, making her smile again,  _ how about Monday?  _

_ Great idea _ , Dinah writes, her smile widening at the idea of going out again with the doctor so quickly,  _ we can check out that pizza place then. Looking forward to it. _

_ Me too _ , the answers again is quick to arrive,  _ I’ll see you on Monday, then. _

Dinah sends back a thumbs up and, after a moment of consideration, adds a kissing emoji; Helena sends the same one back half a minute later, and the fact that this has taken her longer than actually written texts make Dinah wonder if she’d had to search for it, the mere idea making her chuckle to herself as she imagines Helena sitting there with her phone in hand, frowning at it as she searches for the emoji.

With the next date having been settled, Dinah now puts the phone away and focuses on making breakfast; she hums to herself as she does so, feeling good and content, now looking forward to Monday as it means she’ll get to go out with Helena again, the mere thought being enough to put a happy smile on her face.

* * *

After breakfast, Dinah goes for a run, then showers when she’s back home, and after that she has some chores to do around the apartment; and once she is done with those, she moves to the couch to relax a bit with the book she’s currently reading, but only manages to read four pages before her phone buzzes on the coffee table next to her and interrupts her reading.

Frowning, Dinah sits up to grab the device, wondering if it’s Helena again or maybe Matt about some emergency; one quick glance at her screen tells her it’s from Renee though, and her stomach sinks, as once again, she suddenly just knows that this means something bad.

_ You home?  _ the text reads, not very informative, but then, Dinah might have gone home with Helena, and it’s sort of considerate of Renee to ask and not just bluntly confront her with the reason for her text,  _ call me if you are and got time. _

She quickly pushes the button which calls the contact, and is glad when Renee takes the call just as fast; that gladness doesn’t last long though, as the detective is blunt now, not bothering to beat around the bush.

“We got another one”, she tells Dinah, who briefly closes her eyes in response, clearly, her assumption that the killer has given up has been wrong, “you got time? Then come to the station please, I want to know if you know him. Bertinelli with you?”

“No”, Dinah tells her, momentarily wondering why Renee would call her first and not the actual pathologist, then shrugging that off, “you want me to call her?”

“No, I’ll do that”, Renee lets her know, “meet us at the lab?”

“Be there as fast as I can”, Dinah says, then ends the call before she flops back onto the couch and covers her eyes; she knows it might not be someone she knows, it might be a regular overdose and not another victim of the killer, but her gut tells her it is, that whoever it is has struck again and has killed a fourth person.

_ Only one way to find out _ , she realizes, letting out a sigh as she gets up from the couch; she makes a quick detour to her bedroom and changes into clothes more suitable for going out, then heads out of her apartment and down to her car, feeling nervous and anxious as she drives, having to make an effort to stick to the speed limit, the last thing she needs now is to be stopped for speeding.

At least, traffic is alright, so she gets to the station fairly quickly; and just when she pulls up and parks, she sees Helena walk towards the entrance, and calls out to her as she gets out of her car, glad that the doctor is here, figuring this will be easier with Helena by her side.

“Dinah”, Helena greets her, not appearing surprised that she is there, so Dinah figures Renee has told the doctor that she has already called her; and a moment later, Helena surprises her by stepping closer and wrapping her up in a hug, Dinah slumping into her embrace a moment later as she clings to her, only now fully realizing how anxious and upset she is.

Anyone else, she realizes as they stand there, would have made use of worn out phrases now, would have told her that it’s going to be okay and that there is nothing to worry about; Helena says nothing though, just holds her and rubs her back, and this quiet reassurance helps more than any empty phrases could have.

“...I’m good”, Dinah manages after a minute or two, pulling back from the hug just enough so she can look at the doctor, “come on, let’s go inside and see if it’s… someone I’ve worked with.”

Helena nods, and takes hold of her hand before they enter the building together; some of the cops there give them strange looks as they walk past, but nobody says anything, and Dinah is glad, she’s not sure how she might have reacted, had someone made a dumb comment.

They head down to the lab together, Renee waiting there at the door; she greets them, taking a look at their joined hands, but not saying anything about it, either, just leading the way into the lab instead, to a covered body on one of the tables.

“Ready?” she asks Dinah, while Helena lets go of her hand, but only so she can place a calming hand on Dinah’s back; the social worker bravely nods, and Renee pulls the cloth aside, and just has to take one look at Dinah afterwards to know what the answer will be, even before Dinah says anything.

“Yeah”, Dinah manages tonelessly, having to swallow before she can go on, “I know him. I used to work with him, he’d been on his own for a while now, he was clean and done with his parole, he…”

She falls silent and turns away from the body, and once again Helena wraps her up in her arms; she doesn’t say anything again, but Dinah doesn’t need her to, just holding on to her tight as she struggles to keep her composure, pained at seeing another young man dead, and now wondering how many more will die before whoever is doing this will be caught.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, poor Dinah. Luckily Helena is there for support :)


	17. Chapter 17

“I’ll get to work right away”, Helena promises a short while later, already pulling on her labcoat and then moving to wash her hands, “I’ll let you know once I’m done.”

Renee nods and thanks her, then lets them know she’ll be upstairs in her office if they need anything and heads out; Dinah remains where she is, feeling a bit lost as she just stands there while Helena gets ready for her work, but she doesn’t just want to go home, either, she’s still upset and she knows sitting around alone in her home won’t make this any better.

“Um”, Helena lets out as she moves over to the dead body, “you’re welcome to stay, but… that might make it… worse?”

“I know”, Dinah sighs, eying the instruments Helena is getting ready, “I know what your job entails but… I can’t go home now, I’ll just sit around there and feel bad. You don’t mind if I stay?”

“No”, Helena reassures her at once, putting on thin rubber gloves as she talks, “I don’t mind. Not to be rude but… don’t touch anything?”

Dinah just nods, and shoves her hands into the pocket of her jacket; Helena gives her a brief smile, then gets to work, and as she starts fairly harmless, namely with searching the dead man’s pockets, Dinah watches, figuring she can look away once the gruesome stuff starts.

“You always do that?” she wants to know as Helena finishes her search of the shirt pockets and moves on to the pants, “search the pockets, I mean? Shouldn’t the cops do that?”

“Technically yes”, Helena nods, briefly glancing at Dinah and giving her a wry smile, “usually, Detective Montoya is one of those who actually do that. Others, not so much. Guess she had other things on her mind this time.”

With that, she pulls a balled up piece of thin paper from the man’s pocket and carries it to the nearest free table; Dinah steps closer, curious now, wondering if this might be some sort of hint, frowning when Helena carefully smooths it out and she gets a closer look at it.

“That’s a beer label”, she then says, making Helena look up at her, “like, from a bottle?”

“Yes”, Helena agrees, Dinah managing a small smile now as this makes her feel as if she is helping and not just standing there and watching the doctor work, “and it looks like he peeled it off, look, you can see where his nails loosened it from the bottle.”

“Yeah”, Dinah nods as Helena points the spots in question out to her, “he does that all the time, also during our talks, always peel labels off drinks or toy with something, keeping his hands busy… Or, he did that all the time…”

“I’m sorry”, Helena says, making Dinah look at her again; she lets out a small sigh in response, then gives a little shrug, her gaze returning to the bottle label again, as if it might tell her what has happened if she just looks at it long enough. 

“You know what”, she says, pulling out her phone already, “maybe this can help us narrow it down where he’s been before he got killed. That’s not a beer label which is sold all over town, I’ll try to find out which places sell that.”

“Good idea”, Helena says at once, and for a moment, Dinah isn’t sure if the doctor is just saying that to make her feel better, then realizes that Helena hardly is the type to do that, “but you don’t have to do that with your phone, you can use one of the computers here. Let me boot that up for you.”

She does just that, to Dinah’s relief choosing the computer which is closest to her area of work, so she doesn’t have to sit far away from her all on her own in the lab; it still seems somewhat creepy to her, and she’s glad to have Helena nearby, even if the woman will be running tests and cutting up a corpse just a few feet away. 

She can hear Helena work behind her as she opens up a web browser and starts her own work; perhaps, she thinks to herself, this is a waste of time and won’t lead anywhere, but at least, she can do  _ something _ , instead of just sitting around at home and feeling bad for yet another victim.

Her attempts start fairly well, as the brewery’s website helpfully lists a place of bars where their beer can be tried; Dinah wonders if they will end up hanging out in more bars to find whoever is doing this, raising her brows when she spots the bar Helena and she have gone to the previous evening in the list.

Figuring it can’t hurt to have that list, Dinah prints it, Helena briefly glancing up at the printer noise, but not questioning her, focusing on her own work again; now that she has made a little bit of progress, Dinah feels motivated, and starts googling the bars, figuring she might as well try and see if there are any on the list which are unlikely to be visited by people she has been or is working with.

She uses the website printout to take notes, underlining the bars which are in areas where she knows her clients work and live, and crossing out those which are in higher priced locations; she gets quite into her work, so much that she doesn’t even notice Helena stepping up to her, and flinches when the doctor says her name.

“Sorry”, Helena apologizes at once, giving her a wry smile, “it seems like I’m good at startling you. One of my tests is running, that will take a while, so I figured I’d see how you’re doing over here.”

“More bars”, Dinah lets her know, making her raise her eyebrows, the questioning look prompting Dinah to elaborate, “the website of that beer label had a list of where you can buy their beer. I’m trying to narrow those down, check those places, not to be prejudiced but I’m pretty sure people I work with don’t go to a bar near the Four Seasons.”

“Yes, that is unlikely”, Helena says, making Dinah smile a bit at her deadpan tone, “good thinking. So, more bars then, huh.”

“I suppose so”, Dinah tells her, smiling slightly again, “unless you find some other amazing hint which will lead us straight to the killer. You got anything interesting yet?”

“Not really, no”, Helena lets her know, and she makes a face, but then, she figures, Helena’s work takes time, she doubts it’s like in the TV shows where the forensics are done within ten minutes and can pinpoint the killer, “some fibres and hair on his clothing, the toxicology test is running now. I’m fairly certain though it will have a result like the last three, heightened concentration of morphine-6-glucoronide.”

“Which means?” Dinah asks, she remembers that Helena has told her about this, but back then, she hasn’t thought to ask; and clearly, Helena seems glad about the question, perhaps because she can now talk about something she is an expert at, without having to worry about breaking some of the many social codes which mostly mystify her.

“It’s what the body… makes of heroin, for lack of a better word”, she explains, taking note of how all of Dinah’s attention is on her now, her own work forgotten, and it makes her feel strangely flattered, the cops here do listen to her when she explains things, but not like this, not with this undivided, clear interest, “so you can always tell if someone died from an overdose, by what is left in the body. For the victims we’ve had so far though, it’s been way high even for an overdose. There have been no signs of a struggle, so maybe, they were subdued with morphine or a similar substance first and then given the overdose when they couldn’t fight back.”

“Shit”, Dinah lets out, Helena nodding her agreement to that assessment of the culprit’s way to murder their victims, “but it still has to be someone they trust, they wouldn’t, I don’t know, take a drink from a random stranger or something, they all know better than that.”

“And we will find this person”, Helena reassures her, glad when this makes Dinah smile again as this tells her she has found the right words, something she isn’t particularly good at on any given day, “ideally before they kill again. Don’t worry, the untraceable murderer is a myth, they all slip up sooner or later.”

“Let’s hope this one will slip up before another person dies”, Dinah says with a small sigh, making Helena nod; and after a moment, the doctor reaches out and places one hand on the other woman’s shoulder, Dinah giving her a brief smile in response, Helena smiling back at her after a moment before they both get back to work, knowing there is much to do still, and quickly, before the killer can strike again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, teamwork :D


	18. Chapter 18

There isn’t much left for Dinah to do once she has finished her research on the bars, having managed to narrow the list from the website down to three, the one where Helena and she have been to included; she doesn’t feel like going home though yet, and so, she stays, and watches Helena work, even though that does make her feel a bit queasy, especially when Helena starts working on the dead body.

Still, she stays, and focuses on Helena’s face instead of on what the woman is doing with her hands; and as she does her job, Helena keeps talking, narrating what she does for the recording device on the table next to her, and while what she talks about is quite unpleasant, Dinah does enjoy listening to her voice, and so, she focuses on that, as well, just to make sure she won’t see too much of what she does to the man’s body.

At least, this part doesn’t take long, as there is apparently nothing unusual about the man’s insides; and by the time Helena gets done with the more gruesome part of her work, the toxicology test is done, as well, and she moves on to that after finishing her work on the body, to Dinah’s relief covering it up with a sheet for the time being.

“Let’s take a look at that”, Helena says once she is done with that, pulling her glasses from her pocket and putting them on as she moves to the computer; and even though Dinah figures it’s not exactly appropriate to have those thoughts here in this place, in this situation, she can’t help herself, but has to note how the glasses make the doctor look quite attractive, a fact which momentarily distracts her from the task at hand.

The numbers and letters on the report don’t mean much to Dinah, but they are quite clear to Helena; the doctor frowns to herself, then nods as she turns to look at the social worker, not really surprising her with what she says next.

“Same as the others”, Helena tells her, “as expected. Now we got four dead people with the same unusually high concentration of this in their system. I will talk to Detective Montoya about this, this number is getting too high to be ignored or written off as a coincidence. We might have an official investigation going soon.”

“While that is a good thing, it’s also a bit sad”, Dinah comments, Helena raising her brows in response as she waits for her to go on and explain, “cause it means we can’t hang out in bars anymore to look for bad guys.”

“Well, we can still go to bars without having to look for bad guys”, Helena points out a flaw in Dinah’s logic, “that might be even more fun, if we can focus on… conversation and… stuff.”

“And stuff?” Dinah repeats, smirking while the doctor blushes a bit, momentarily forgetting where they are and why they are here, “you mean like this?”

And with that, she steps closer to her, wraps both arms around her and kisses her; for a moment she wonders if this means she is getting used to having dead people in her general vicinity, then Helena returns both the embrace and the kiss, and she forgets about that, just focusing on how good this feels.

“Yes”, Helena manages once they have pulled apart again, cheeks still reddened, a smile curling her lips though, signalling that she’s more than fine with being kissed in her lab, “stuff like this.”

“And the conversation, of course”, Dinah says, a bit too serious perhaps as Helena gives her a  _ look _ , then smiles and nods though; and then, she pulls her phone from her pocket, already scrolling through the contacts as she replies.

“Speaking of conversation”, she says, “I better call the detective and tell her about this. The sooner we get to work on this, the better, our culprit did just kill, but if they pick their victims up at bars, Saturday would be a good day for that.”

“Yeah”, Dinah has to agree, grimacing; Helena gives her a brief apologetic look, then calls Renee, the detective taking the call quickly, and apparently just listening once Helena has told her it’s her and explains what she has found during her work on the newest victim.

“Yeah, four are too many to just write off”, Renee agrees once Helena is done, the doctor nodding along even though the other woman can’t see her, “alright, we officially got a murder case. Thanks for your help doctor, and tell Dinah thanks too, in case she’s still there.”

“Certainly”, Helena replies, then ends the call - so hanging up abruptly is something she always seems to do, Dinah notes, smiling a bit when the doctor looks at her again and their eyes meet, her smile widening when the taller woman goes on, “it’s officially a murder case now. The detective says thanks for your help.”

“And I have to thank you”, Dinah lets her know, making her smile a bit again, “this never would have happened if you hadn’t listened to my gut feeling when that second guy came in. So, thank you.”

“I’m glad I did”, Helena tells her, to her amusement blushing yet again, and taking off her glasses to fiddle with them nervously as she goes on, but she does say it, despite how hard it is for her, “because… it led to us like… this. And that makes me happy.”

“Me too”, Dinah reassures her, touched by the fact that Helena has told her this despite how hard it has been for her, “that is the one good thing which came from this mess. Well, and one killer less out there once you guys have captured them, so I guess it’s two good things.”

Helena nods and has a moment to smile at her, then Dinah is kissing her again, once again forgetting about where they are and what’s around them, just focusing on the feeling of Helena’s lips on her own.

“Alright”, she mumbles once they do pull apart again, the taller woman’s arms still around her, the way her hands rest on her back making her feel secure and comfortable, “I guess we’re done here then? For now?”

“Yes”, Helena agrees, there is not much more she can do for now, and with the case being official now, Dinah’s research on the bars isn’t needed for the moment anymore, either, “we are… And it’s close to lunch, you want to go and have a bite to eat?”

“Sure”, Dinah says at once, glad that Helena has been the one to ask, once again worried about appearing too pushy, “I could eat. And hey, I guess that means I’m getting used to being around dead people, if it doesn’t affect my appetite anymore.”

“It appears so”, Helena nods, taking off her labcoat and putting on her jacket instead, then taking another moment to shut down the computer, “it has never bothered me, you know. Which I guess is good, since they’re a big part of my work.”

Dinah smiles and nods, the doctor smiling back at her before she asks if they should get going, then; Dinah agrees to that as well, and takes her hand as they walk out the lab, the smile Helena gives her at the gesture making her heart skip an excited beat, and she’s fairly certain it’s similar for Helena as she smiles back at her and squeezes her hand and notices how the taller woman’s breath hitches for a moment. 

At least one good thing has come from this, Dinah thinks to herself as they walk up the stairs and to the doors, and even though she knows she can’t be sure, she’s certain things will work out well for Helena and her in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, progress AND a lunch date x)


	19. Chapter 19

When Dinah arrives at the office on Monday morning, she feels good and relaxed; the lunch with Helena on Saturday has been nice, there has been some more kissing during and after it, and they have texted during Sunday, having agreed upon meeting for dinner Monday after work, something Dinah now looks forward to, even though she briefly gets distracted from those nice thoughts when she enters the office and finds two cops there, sitting in front of Matt’s desk.

“Good morning, Dinah”, her boss greets her, the two men briefly glancing at her, but apparently not deeming her as a person of importance, as they focus on her boss again, “officers, this is Dinah Lance, she works here with me. I’ll fill her in about what you told us.”

“Thanks”, one of the officers says, coming to his feet, and prompting his colleague to do the same, “and call us in case anything comes up, like we said.”

“Will do”, Matt reassures them, and they both nod before they say goodbye; curious, Dinah raises her brows at her boss, so he can fill her in as he’d said, and he does so a moment later, after letting out a heavy, unhappy sigh.

“Apparently someone out there is targeting former addicts”, he says, picking up a pen and toying with it absent-mindedly, “as if those poor souls haven’t been through enough. They asked us to keep our eyes and ears open, ask our clients during the meetings if they have met anyone new, stuff like that.”

“Yeah, sure, no problem”, Dinah nods, this is exactly what Renee has asked her to do when they still had been working on this unofficially, “I can do that.”

She doesn’t reveal that she sort of has been doing that already, this makes her feel bad about keeping it from Matt, but she doesn’t want to get Renee in trouble now; Matt gives her a smile, and nods his thanks, then lets her know that that’s it for now and that they should get to work, Dinah nodding as well before she retreats to her own office.

There’s a few clients who have appointments that day, and now that she can officially ask them about any new people in their lives, or strangers who have approached them and have seemed suspicious, she’s glad to do so; none of them has anything for her though, they seem a bit confused why she’d want to know that, but don’t question her, to her relief, as she figures that causing a panic among their clients is the last thing they want.

Matt asks her if she has found out anything when she comes back from a short trip to the bodega to get them lunch, and Dinah lets him know she hasn’t; he shakes his head when she asks him if he has, but she’s not surprised at his denial, giving him a slight smile as she lets him know that these things take time and that they won’t catch the culprit so quickly.

“I guess not”, Matt has to agree with a sigh, “and I suppose it’s not like in the movies, where your pathologist girlfriend takes one look at the body and knows who did it.”

“Sadly, no”, Dinah replies, smiling a bit at Matt referring to Helena as her girlfriend, “but she’s good at what she does, so she’ll be helpful. I got another appointment coming in though, so I better get ready for that.”

He nods and she retreats to her office again, taking a few quick bites of her sandwich before her client arrives; and after she is done with that talk, she focuses on some paperwork, not realizing how much time has passed until Matt knocks her door, then pokes his head into the room, asking her if she wants a snack and coffee too, adding that there’s some time he has left until his next client and that he’ll make a quick run to the bodega.

“Yes to the snack, thanks”, Dinah tells him, her stomach rumbling as if to confirm, and she figures a snack will be okay even if she’ll meet Helena for dinner later, “but no coffee, can you get me an orange juice instead?”

“Sure”, Matt shrugs, then leaves to get the food and drinks; he comes back a short while later, and after thanking him, Dinah downs half of the juice bottle in one go, only now realizing she’s been quite thirsty.

Feeling better now, Dinah takes a bite of the candy bar Matt has brought her as a snack, one of her favourites, and goes back to work; she starts typing, writing a protocol for the last appointment, pausing and rubbing her eyes when the letters blur in front of her eyes.

_ You really didn’t drink enough today _ , she scolds herself as she takes another bite of her candy, then washes it down with another sip of juice,  _ get it together, date with Helena soon. _

That makes her smile, but not for long, as the letters keep blurring, and now her stomach starts feeling queasy, too; then, the room starts spinning around her, and now, Dinah starts to get scared as she realizes that something is very not right.

She comes to her feet, and has to grab her desk for support when she staggers; telling herself she has to get help, she forces herself to remain on her feet, even though it’s hard, the spinning increasing as she makes her way to the door, needing a few tries until she gets it open.

“Matt”, Dinah manages, having to hold on to the doorframe so she won’t fall, her boss coming to his feet quickly and moving to her side, “I don’t… something’s wrong, I…”

She feels his arms go around her, steadying her - and then he smiles at her, and her breath catches in her throat, his smile is cold and cruel, so unlike the way he normally smiles at her, and only now, she fully realizes how wrong exactly things are.

“I know”, he tells her in a soothing voice, “you’re about to pass out. But don’t worry, I’ll get you to your home, and it will all be over soon.

Dinah tries to get out of his hold in response, but he can easily stop her, whatever he has done is working fast; and as she still struggles, the world goes dark around her, and the last thing she sees before she passes out is the cruel smile on his face.

He waits a few moments, then shakes her limp body a bit, making sure she truly is out cold; and once he has convinced himself of that, he hoists her up, grabs her bag and carries her out of the office, making sure no one is around to see him as he walks the short distance to her car, still smiling to himself while he loads her into the backseat.

He knows she keeps her keys in her pocket, one of the many little details they have picked up about each other during the years they have worked together; he finds them, and starts her car and drives, glancing at the backseat every now and then, but he’s confident that she won’t wake up too soon.

He knows what he is doing after all, and his smile widens as he also knows that truly, all of this will be over soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *plays suspenseful music*


	20. Chapter 20

“Dinah.”

Her limbs feel heavy, and her mouth is dry, and her head hurts, this is like the worst flu she’s ever had, but she hasn’t been sick in years, and she has felt fine this morning, this makes no sense.

“Dinah. Wake up.”

It takes her much more strength than it should have to open her eyes, and when she does, Matt is right in front of her, smiling as their eyes meet, and all the memories slam back, and Dinah wants to get away from him, but she can’t move, her body is weak and her mind is sluggish and she can’t  _ move _ , no matter how hard she tries.

“There you are”, Matt lightly says, sitting back on the chair he has dragged to the couch she is lying on, “good. I want you awake for this. I want you to know.”

“It’s you”, Dinah manages, and just saying those two words takes so much of her strength, it’s unreal, and it makes it very clear to her she won’t be able to cry out for help; he sighs, then nods, and reaches into the inner pocket of his jacket, her stomach clenching when he pulls out a small package of heroin.

“You haven’t been doing this as long as I have, you know”, he conversationally says, putting the package on her coffee table before he gets up to find a spoon, “if you had, you would understand. All the work we do, all the talking and help, and they just all go back to this shit. It’s useless, it’s all for nothing.”

“So you kill them?” Dinah manages, maybe, she figures, if she can keep him talking, she will recover enough to fight back; he readies the syringe as he nods, then pours the heroin onto the spoon, then holds his lighter beneath it, keeping his eyes on it as he replies.

“I just give them what they really want”, he tells her, “deep inside, they all want to go back to this. And I’m sorry, I know you’re not like them. But you’ve been getting too close. Dating that creep Bertinelli? Please, I know what she’s like, I know you were working with her and that detective.”

“You won’t get away with this”, Dinah presses out between grit teeth, whatever he has given her, it’s slowly wearing off, and if she can just keep him talking a while longer, she might be able to get out of this, “you gonna kill Helena and Renee, too?”

“You won’t need to worry about that”, Matt tells her, carefully drawing the now liquid heroin into the syringe, filling it, “I’m really sorry I have to do this Dinah, but with all your digging, you leave me no choice. Rest assured that I don’t want to do this.”

“No”, Dinah brings out when he pushes up her sleeve and exposes the crook of her arm, “Matt, no, come on, don’t… please…”

She tries to bring up her other hand to fight him off, but she’s still weakened, and he holds her down with ease; there’s a bit of pain as the needle goes into her arm, and she whimpers, Matt giving her a smile he probably thinks of as calming as he injects the heroin into her arm, then leaves the needle right there, in an attempt perhaps to make it look more like an overdose.

“Sorry”, he says once again as he straightens up, “I mean it. I hope you’ll go to a better place. Goodbye, Dinah.”

He gives her another smile, then turns and walks off, his fading footsteps being the last thing Dinah hears before her world once more goes dark.

* * *

Helena doesn’t get distracted often during her work, but she’s distracted now, and her phone is to blame.

Perhaps, she then corrects herself, it’s not the phone itself, but the lack of activity from said phone; Dinah and she have been texting pretty much constantly since their lunch date on Saturday, but now, Dinah suddenly has stopped responding, and without warning, too, she has had some client meetings during the day, but has let Helena know before every time, so she’d know it’d take her a while to respond.

_ Don’t be strange _ , she tells herself, frowning as she checks her phone again and no new notification shows up,  _ she’s probably just busy. You call her now, you will seem like a clingy weirdo. _

The feeling that something is wrong is nagging at her though, no matter how hard she tries to shake it; and so, after holding on for another ten minutes or so, Helena gives in and calls Dinah, frowning when the social worker doesn’t pick up.

She tries her office next, both her extension and the number of her boss; when neither of them picks up, her worries only grow, and she suddenly just knows that something is wrong, and that she has to do something, she can’t just stay here and do nothing while Dinah might be in danger.

And so, Helena shrugs out of her labcoat, and puts on her jacket; technically, she still has an autopsy to finish, but the guy can wait, it’s pretty standard, anyway, her usually strict work ethic having to take a backseat now as her worry for Dinah weighs too heavy to be ignored.

As she hurries towards the stairs, she pulls out her phone and calls Renee, figuring they might be faster if they do this together; thankfully, the detective doesn’t question her when she tells her that something is wrong and that Dinah might need their help, not even taking the chance given to point out that usually, Helena is one to scoff at such gut feelings and only trusts the facts.

“You go to her home”, the detective says instead, “I’ll check the office. Might not lead anywhere, but I really don’t know where else we might start.”

“Yes, I’ll do that, alright”, Helena says, then realizes she is close to rambling, something which is very unusual for her, and forces herself to take a deep breath before she goes on, “thank you. Call me if you find anything.”

“Alright”, Renee agrees, “you keep me posted, too.”

Helena lets out a vaguely agreeing noise, then ends the call as she heads out the building and to her car; she hasn’t been to Dinah’s home yet, but she knows the address, Dinah having mentioned it during one of the talks at the various bars they have been to, and she’s glad about this now, she could have found the address out another way, but that would have made her feel even more weird about the whole thing.

Still she doesn’t allow herself to rethink it and turn back, telling herself it will be alright either way - if Dinah is at her home all fine and well, then Helena has been worried for nothing and might appear weird, but she’s used to that, and if something really is wrong, she’ll be there to help, sound reasoning which convinces her she’s doing the right thing as she gets into the car.

As she starts the engine, she checks her phone again, but Dinah hasn’t called back or texted; and so, Helena steps down onto the gas pedal and drives, for once not caring about the speed limit, once more convinced that something is very, very wrong.

She hopes to arrive in time to stop whatever it is, and that she won’t be too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now let's hope Helena will make it in time... :O


	21. Chapter 21

“Dinah?” Helena calls out as she rings the bell, then knocks the door of Dinah’s apartment, her worry only growing when there is no response; she pulls out her phone and tries calling Dinah one more time, telling herself that breaking into her apartment for no reason certainly is weird and creepy.

Then, she hears Dinah’s phone ring in there, and all thoughts about being weird or going too far are forgotten as she quickly ends the call and pockets her phone, then pulls out a hairpin, once more glad this is a skill she has as she goes to work on the lock.

It doesn’t take her long, Dinah’s apartment door isn’t exactly the most secure one, and she makes a mental note to tell her to get a better lock once she can be sure Dinah is okay, but for now, Helena is glad that the lock isn’t that good; the door swings open, and she calls out “Dinah?” as she enters the apartment, feeling as if she is intruding, but telling herself that it’s for a good cause.

She walks down the short hallway, the kitchen is the first room she can see from there, and it’s empty; the living room is next, on the other side, and when Helena looks there, she’s fairly certain her heart actually stops for a second, before it takes up work again, hammering so hard and fast in her chest that it hurts.

Dinah is lying on her back on the couch, not reacting when Helena manages to say her name; Helena has been trained to have an eye for the details in her job, and to take in many of those at once, and so, she immediately sees the needle still stuck in the social worker’s vein, and the heroin and the spoon on the table.

For a moment, all she can do is stand there and stare, then the clinical detachment she often uses in her job kicks in; realizing there is no time to waste, she rushes to the couch, taking a moment to make sure Dinah is still breathing and her heart is beating, and it is, but her breath and pulse are slow, too slow, and Helena knows she needs to act fast.

_ “That’s an Evzio”,  _ she remembers Dinah commenting, back at the lab after the second victim had been found, _ , “I carry one of those, too. It works like an epipen, only for opioid overdoses.” _

Quickly, Helena goes through her pockets, then grabs her bag and searches through that; and there, she’s successful, the bulky device is hard to miss, and while she pulls the needle out carefully - touching it so that she won’t get her fingers anywhere the culprit might have been touching it - she gets her phone with her other hand, dialling 911 while she puts the needle on the desk and places the Evzio against Dinah’s arm, hoping it’s still early enough to keep her alive until the ambulance arrives.

“911, how can I help you”, the operator takes the call, and Helena quickly explains who and where she is and what has happened; the operator reassures her she will send an ambulance at once, Helena declining when the woman then asks if she should stay on the line with her, hanging up before the operator has the chance to say anything and calling Renee.

“I’m at Dinah’s place”, she says without preamble once the detective takes the call, “our culprit got to her, ambulance is on the way.”

“And so am I”, Renee replies at once, and Helena can hear the concern in her voice, “is she…?”

“Alive, yes”, Helena replies, keeping her eyes on the unconscious woman as she goes on, “she’s had an Evzio, I used that on her.”

“Good”, Renee says, “alright, I’m on my way, I’ll meet you there, let me know where they are taking her in case the ambulance arrives before I do.”

Helena lets out an agreeing noise, then hangs up without another word; and then, she takes Dinah’s hand and just sits there, keeping her eyes on her as if the power of her gaze will be enough to keep her alive, not moving an inch until the ambulance arrives a few minutes later.

* * *

Renee is prepared to flash her badge to find out which room Dinah is in, but as it turns out, she doesn’t have to; the nurse tells her without trying to make trouble, and when she steps into the room, she finds Dinah still out cold in the bed there, hooked up to various machines, and Helena sitting next to the bed and holding Dinah’s hand, the doctor not looking at her when she enters even though Renee is fairly certain she has heard her.

“How is she”, the detective asks, and that does make Helena look at her; the doctor looks more tired than Renee ever has seen her, but her voice is steady when she replies, and her eyes are dry, if she has cried before Renee has shown up, it doesn’t show.

“They did what they could”, Helena lets her know, looking back at Dinah again as she goes on, “doctor said he’s pretty sure she’ll be fine, for now, we can just wait for her to wake up.”

“Okay”, Renee says, moving to stand next to her, “and how are you holding up, Bertinelli? That must have been a shock, finding her like that.”

“I’m fine”, Helena says at once, either not noticing Renee’s sceptical look or deciding to ignore it, “but I’m not the one who’s unconscious in the hospital after someone gave me an overdose.”

“No, you’re not”, Renee agrees, Helena glancing at her again for a moment before her gaze returns to Dinah, “but your girlfriend is.”

“I’m fine”, Helena says again, but there is  _ something _ in her voice now which gives Renee pause; if it had been someone she’s caring less about, she might have left it at that anyway, but she does care, for both Helena and Dinah, and she knows it’s not healthy to bottle this up, there is nothing she can do for Dinah at the moment, but she can do something for the doctor.

“Helena”, she thus quietly says, placing one hand on the other woman’s shoulder; and she’s not sure if it’s the first name, the touch or maybe both, but she feels Helena go stiff - before her face starts to work as she struggles to contain her emotions, failing miserably a moment later, a stifled sob escaping her as she slumps down in the chair.

Renee knows there is nothing she can say now, so she just wraps the doctor up in a hug; it’s a bit awkward, with how she is standing and Helena is sitting, but she doesn’t let that bother her, rubbing the taller woman’s back soothingly as Helena struggles to regain her composure.

“She’ll be fine”, the detective says soothingly, pretty much only repeating what Helena herself has said minutes ago, “you listened to your gut, and found her, and she’ll be fine. And we’ll catch the one who did this, and put him in jail, where he fucking belongs.”

She feels Helena nod against her shoulder, the doctor not saying anything else; and Renee doesn’t say anything else either, just holds her and gives her comfort, comfort Helena hasn’t even been aware she needs until this very moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Helena to the rescue again :D


	22. Chapter 22

Dinah can’t recall the last time she has felt so tired and drained right after waking up, and she’s confused when she forces her eyes open and stares up a pristine white ceiling which is definitely not hers.

Then, she remembers, she remembers Matt and the heroin and the needle in her arm, and her breath quickens - and a second later, she feels someone gently squeeze her hand, and nearly is overwhelmed by relief when Helena’s voice reaches her ears next.

“Dinah”, the doctor says, squeezing her hand again, figuring that the touch might help to keep her grounded, make her realize where she is, “it’s okay. You’re in the hospital, you’re safe.”

Helena leans over her, moving into her field of view; and even in her drained, exhausted state, Dinah takes note of her reddened eyes and of how tired she looks, and she wonders how long she has been out cold.

“Hey”, the doctor says, giving her a weak smile, and even though it takes effort, Dinah smiles back at her, “you gave us quite the fright there. How are you feeling?”

“Tired”, Dinah manages, only now becoming aware of how dry her mouth and throat are; and clearly, Helena can tell, even without her saying anything, because she reaches over to the nightstand Dinah can see from the corner of her eye, then a glass of water with a straw appears in her field of view, Helena carefully lifting her head with one hand and guiding the straw to her lips with the other.

“Thank you”, Dinah mumbles after taking a few sips, feeling better already; Helena gives her another brief smile, then puts the glass back on the nightstand and leans back in her seat, taking hold of Dinah’s hand again, the social worker smiling when she feels Helena’s fingers curl around her own.

“How did I get here?” she wants to know, belatedly realizing she has no idea, but figuring Helena has played a not insignificant part; and this is confirmed a moment later, the smile the doctor gives her now slightly wry as she shrugs, and her tone apologetic when she responds.

“I got worried, when you didn’t text”, she tells the social worker, “so I called, and only got more worried when you didn’t answer. So, and I am aware that this might be weird, I called Renee, she checked your office and I checked your home. And found you there.”

“Please tell me how it’s weird to save my life”, Dinah wants to know in response, Helena giving her a worried look, but not trying to stop her when she moves to sit up, helping to put the pillow up instead so she can lean against it, “because that’s what you did. I’d be dead by now if it hadn’t been for you. Thank you.”

“Guess in that case, it’s a good thing I’m weird”, Helena says, with another wry smile; Dinah smiles back at her and shrugs, Helena squeezing her hand again, growing serious as she knows she has to ask this, even though it might make the social worker feel worse again if she has to remember.

“Who did this to you?” she still asks, knowing they have to know, she’s not sure Dinah will remember, but from how the other woman’s face darkens, Helena can tell she does, and she expects her to describe some unknown culprit, Dinah’s actual answer so unexpected that her mouth literally drops open.

“Matt”, Dinah tells her, voice wavering now as she still can’t believe he has done this, to the victims and to her, “he’s our guy. He told me, he kills them for some twisted bullshit reason about how they’ll always be addicts because they all want to go back to the drugs, even when they’ve been clean. And how he has to kill me, because he knows I’ve been digging.”

“Shit”, Helena lets out, then frowns as another thought hits her, “but he doesn’t know yet he failed. He’ll think you’re dead.”

“Yeah”, Dinah agrees, not sure where this is going, if it is actually going anywhere or if Helena is just thinking out loud, then realizing something else he has said, “he has no reason to think anyone found me in time, you know, he… he didn’t believe that we’re actually dating. He thought it’s a sort of cover we’ve used while being on his trail.” 

She decides then and there to not mention that Matt actually has called her “that creep Bertinelli”, by now knowing that Helena is all too aware of her troubles when it comes to social interaction of any kind and not wanting to make this worse; and to her relief, Helena doesn’t ask why he would doubt that, just nodding instead, making a face a moment later, and Dinah realizes she has been going for something with her words when she speaks up again. 

“He will try again, once he realizes you’re not dead”, Helena says, and Dinah grimaces as well, realizing she’s probably right, “unless we arrest him first. I need to speak to Renee, now.”

She pulls her phone from her pocket and dials, Dinah listening in silence how she tells Renee what she has told her; it doesn’t take long, and after her explanation, Helena listens for a few moments, then says “okay, thank you”, before she hangs up, tucking her phone away before she focuses on Dinah again.

“The nearest patrol car will stop by at your office”, she then says, Dinah feeling a bit relieved at this, figuring Matt won’t think of the possibility that she might have survived and thus will be caught unaware, “and another one is sent to his home. If we can’t find him there, they’ll issue a search warrant for him. We’ll have him in no time.”

“Good”, Dinah says with a small sigh, “I still can’t believe he did that. We sign up for this sort of work because we want to help people and he just… went and started murdering them. Jesus.”

“Our profiler will have a field day with him”, Helena says, in her trademark dry tone; she belatedly realizes this might have not been the best answer, but once again, Dinah proves that she truly is not like others when it comes to how she reacts to her and her less appropriate moments, as the social worker lets out a short laugh instead of getting offended, Helena giving a somewhat relieved smile, glad that Dinah isn’t reacting badly to her words.

“Yeah”, Dinah agrees, still smiling a bit, “I guess so. Now, why don’t you come a bit closer so I can kiss you? You know, as a reward for saving my life.”

“I better ask your doctor first if that is okay”, Helena tells her, still in that dry tone, but this time, Dinah can tell she is joking; she just raises an eyebrow in response, and after a few moments, Helena smirks, then leans in to kiss her, and as Dinah kisses her back, she feels much better, confident that Matt will be arrested quickly and that all of this will be over soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Dinah is gonna be OK :D  
> Also, if I ever write a sequel to this, that profiler Helena mentioned is totally gonna be Harley. XD


	23. Chapter 23

Once visiting hours end, Helena is reluctant to actually leave; Renee has told her that two cops will be posted outside Dinah’s room, just in case Matt somehow learns that she’s still alive and shows up there, so she knows that Dinah will be safe, but she still feels bad about leaving her alone, something the social worker is very aware of as she watches her fidget when the nurse pokes her head in and tells her that she has to go.

“It’s fine”, Dinah tells her, the nurse thankfully retreating again for the moment, but they both know she’ll be back all too soon, “I’ll have two cops outside, remember? Go home, get some rest, no offense, but you look like you could need it.”

“I guess so”, Helena sighs, Dinah giving her a reassuring smile and squeezing her hand, “alright, fine, I’ll go home. But I’ll be right here tomorrow morning, the second visiting hours start.”

For a moment, Dinah almost asks her about her work, then decides not to, already knowing the answer - and it’s not like the people Helena has to work on can go anywhere, she knows; thus, she just nods and gives the doctor another smile, Helena smiling back at her after a moment, then leaning in for another kiss, still somewhat reluctant when she rises from her chair once they have pulled apart again.

“Go home”, Dinah says again, earning a sigh from the doctor, “not that I want you gone, but I don’t want you to get in trouble, either. I’ll be fine.”

Helena makes herself nod, then once more tells Dinah she’ll be there in the next morning; and then, after another kiss, she does leave, nodding at the cops standing guard outside as she walks past them, still feeling bad for leaving Dinah all on her own here, but knowing that she doesn’t have much of a choice, and at least the officers at the door will make sure she’s protected.

She still would have preferred to stay too, but that’s not an option, and so, she does as Dinah has suggested, going home to get some rest; she does feel tired, she now realizes, and yawns as she gets into her car, figuring that sleep might truly be a good idea, especially if she wants to get up early in the next morning to go back to the hospital.

By the time Helena arrives at her apartment building, the tiredness has caught up with her fully, and all she wants is to shower and get into bed; as she walks up the stairs to her apartment, she pulls out her keys, yawning again when she starts unlocking her door, only to freeze when someone steps up right behind her and something hard pushes into her back.

“Creepinelli”, a vaguely familiar voice says, and it takes her a moment to place it, “finally, you’re home. I’ve been waiting hours out here, working overtime? Unlock and step inside, nice and slow.”

“So you can shoot me at my home instead of in the hallway?” Helena wants to know, and even though she can’t see him, she knows she has thrown him off guard, hearing him take in a sharp breath, “let me guess, you’ll make it look like a burglary gone wrong?”

“Shut the fuck up and get in there, weirdo”, Matt snarls in reply, pushing what she assumes is a gun harder against her back; Helena turns the key one more time in response - and then slams her head back, feeling and hearing his nose break when she connects, as she has figured she would, having figured out his exact position from his voice and the pressure of the gun against her back.

He stumbles back, thankfully without pulling the trigger out of pure reflex; Helena wastes no time with being happy about that though, quickly turning to face him, grabbing his arm and forcing it up just as he does pull the trigger, the shot deafeningly loud in the narrow hallway, hitting the ceiling though instead of any part of her body.

She uses her free hand to punch him in the stomach, two fast jabs to knock the air out of him; he does grunt and huff, but he doesn’t go down, using the fact that he weighs more than her to his advantage as he drives her back again, until she slams into the door, the doorknob painfully digging into her back while the back of her head connects to the wood hard, Helena grunting at the impact, but not letting it slow her down.

“What is going on out here?!” she hears someone call out from down the hallway as she struggles to keep Matt’s arm up and the gun from pointing at her body; he punches her in the stomach and the ribs, and she retaliates in kind, shouting to call the police at whoever is witnessing this, only to grunt in pain again when Matt slams his fist against her jaw and her head connects with the door yet again.

“I’m calling the police!” the neighbour shouts, and Matt actually growls and grits his teeth, oddly reminding her of a rabid dog; and suddenly, he tries to get away from her instead of keeping the fight going, even dropping the gun when he realizes Helena won’t let go of his arm.

“Let go, bitch”, he snarls, slamming her against the door again, grunting when she punches him in response, “I’m not going to jail!”

“Oh yes”, Helena responds, quickly taking note of the opening he is giving her in his attempts to get away, “you definitely are.”

And with that, she slams her knee up and right into his groin; he immediately staggers back, gasping as his face goes red, then white, then red again while he slumps to the floor and curls up there, whimpering as he clutches his crotch with both hands.

Quickly, Helena picks up the gun he has dropped and aims it at him, just in case he recovers enough to try attacking her again, as unlikely as it seems right now; she hopes the neighbour truly has called the police, but figures it can’t hurt to do so, as well, keeping her eyes and the gun on Matt as she pulls out her cell phone and dials Renee.

“Get a car here quick”, she says, glaring at Matt when he makes the mistake of looking at her, “turns out that Dinah’s boss isn’t after her, but showed up here at my place instead. He’s down for now, and I got him at gunpoint, but hurry.”

“What, fuck”, Renee lets out, startled, but recovering quickly, “okay, yeah, we’re on the way. You’re okay?”

“Fine”, Helena tells her, she can feel the various pains and aches now, and she can taste blood, but no teeth appear to be gone, so she figures she has bitten her tongue at some point during the fight, “just get here quick.”

“Will do”, Renee reassures her, this time being the one to end the call; Matt is still groaning on the ground, but Helena keeps the gun aimed at him anyway, just in case, smiling a somewhat nasty smile at him, wondering if she also has blood on her teeth and if that will make it look even worse.

“Don’t try moving a muscle”, she then tells the man, darkly satisfied to see the fear in his eyes when he looks up at her and at the gun she is pointing at him, “I’ll shoot you before you can do as much as let go of your crotch. They don’t call me Creepinelli for nothing.”

The nickname has nothing to do with her shooting any people, but he has no idea about that; he actually whimpers, and lies still, and remains on the ground until Renee shows up with two officers in tow, the detective smirking a bit when she puts handcuffs on him and the two cops hoist him to his feet.

“You’re under arrest”, she tells him, and he groans, clearly not happy that he has to be on his feet now, Helena really has landed a good hit, “four counts of murder, and yeah, don’t look so surprised, Miss Lance is alive and will recover. Get him to the car, boys.”

They drag him off, and Renee turns to Helena, raising her brows as she can see a bruise already form around her eye and blood on her lips; Helena just shrugs and says she’s okay, and after a moment, Renee nods, the two women then smiling at each other as they both know that now, this is truly over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooo, go Helena :D


	24. Chapter 24

“Helena, what the fuck!” Dinah exclaims in the next morning as Helena enters her room, sitting up in bed startled and staring at her and the impressive black eye she is sporting, “what did you do yesterday?!”

“No one told you?” Helena wants to know in response, surprised, she has been fairly certain that someone has already informed Dinah what has happened; the social worker just blinks in response, and Helena shrugs, kissing her hello and ignoring the short twinge of pain this causes from her split lip before she sits down.

“Matt tried to surprise me at my apartment yesterday”, she tells Dinah once she has gotten comfortable on the seat, not an easy task with her bruised back and ribs, “apparently planning to murder me, I took him down, but it was a bit of a scuffle.”

_ “What?!” _ Dinah yelps, staring at her wide-eyed, “oh my God! Are you okay? Why has no one told me this, don’t the two bozos out there know?!”

“I don’t know”, Helena truthfully responds, “I actually thought you already do know. And yes, I’m fine, and he’s in jail, so it’s all good.”

“Oh my God”, Dinah says again, stunned, needing a moment to process this before she can go on, “and you took him down? Do they teach self defense at med school?”

“Well, no”, Helena replies with a small laugh, glad when Dinah smiles a bit, as well, “but I took a few classes. Enough, apparently, to win against a social worker gone mad.”

“Thank goodness for that”, Dinah says at once, being the one to reach out and grasp Helena’s hand this time, “God, if he had hurt you…”

“I do have a black eye, and I bit my tongue”, Helena points out, and Dinah rolls her eyes, then pulls her in for another kiss; and once they pull apart again, she smiles at the doctor, clearly feeling much better as she moves her free hand to play with the buttons of Helena’s shirt, amused at how the taller woman reddens at what she says next.

“I hope you didn’t bite your tongue too hard”, Dinah says, still toying with the buttons, “because I do have plans for that tongue once I get out of here.”

“Oh, um”, Helena stammers, then manages to regain enough of her composure to smirk a bit, Dinah’s smile widening in response, “yeah, my tongue is fine, no worries.”

“Good”, Dinah mumbles, then pulls her in yet again, and as the kiss deepens fairly quickly this time, Dinah gives her a small preview of the plans she has for her tongue and for other parts of her body, Helena breathing noticeably heavier by the time they pull apart again.

“I’m glad you’re okay”, she says after a moment, having needed to take a few controlled breaths so her voice would be steady, “I… I’ve lost people before. I don’t want to lose you.”

This is quite a bit deeper and emotional than Dinah has expected, but she handles her surprise well, smiling as she squeezes Helena’s hand yet again; the doctor smiles back at her, a bit sheepish, perhaps, Dinah reflects, she hasn’t really been planning to say that and it just has slipped out, but that only makes it more meaningful.

“You won’t lose me”, she promises, glad when Helena smiles a happier smile at her in response, “I’ll be okay, doctor said I can go home soon. And with Matt out of the picture, hopefully, there won’t be anyone else out there eager to murder me. Or you, Miss  _ I got into a scuffle with a murderer _ .”

“I’m fine, I won”, Helena points out, and Dinah lets out a small laugh before they kiss again, both of them happy that the culprit has been caught and that they have each other, certain that many good things will wait for them in the future.

* * *

A few weeks later, Matt has been found guilty of multiple murder charges and has been sent to jail for life, Dinah and Helena knowing that he won’t get out anytime soon, perhaps never; with him gone, Dinah is promoted to the head of Social Work in Gotham, and gets a new colleague, a young, idealistic girl named Susan, the two of them working well together, even though Susan tends to be a bit nosy, asking many questions whenever Helena picks Dinah up from work.

As Helena tends to work longer hours than Dinah, this doesn’t happen often though, and so, Dinah doesn’t have to face Susan’s questions all too often; quite often, she’s the one to pick up Helena, and even though they have been dating for a while now, people at the station are still surprised about this, as Renee never gets tired of letting them know.

“Today”, she says one day as she runs into Dinah in the lobby, on her way out while Dinah is coming to pick up Helena for a dinner date, “Davison over there asked me if you’re really dating Helena or if it’s just silly rumours. I told him to ask you directly when you come to pick up your girl.”

The man in question, manning the desk at the entrance today, has the grace to blush when Dinah looks at him and arches an eyebrow, then shoots Renee a glare, the detective looking back at him innocently, his gaze moving back to Dinah when she clears her throat.

“So?” she says, and he looks ashamed again, “you want to ask me? No, wait, I’ll just answer. Yes, Helena and I are dating, no, it’s not a weird dare, yes, I really do like her. Happy now?”

He blushes and nods, and Dinah rolls her eyes, then heads down to the lab while Renee leaves, snickering to herself; Helena is still busy, once again elbow deep in a dead guy, but this doesn’t bother Dinah much anymore, she truly has gotten used to it, and while she doesn’t need to watch closely, it also doesn’t bother her to catch a glimpse of a corpse or of what Helena does during her work.

“Hey babe”, she greets, blowing Helena a kiss, because while she is getting better with handling the sights and smells at the lab, kissing right next to a dead guy is a no go, and probably will be forever and ever, “almost done?”

“Almost done”, Helena confirms, making the other woman smile, “just need to sew this guy up, clean up, and then we can head out.”

Dinah smiles again and nods, then uses her phone to check her work email, glad that nothing with high priority has come in; and a few minutes later, Helena is done, taking off her coat and putting on her jacket.

“Do me a favour”, Dinah says as she takes her hand before they walk out of the lab together, “wave to that guy Davison when we leave?”

“Okay”, Helena agrees amiably, she doesn’t quite know why she should do that, but Dinah has asked her to, and so she waves as they walk past the man; she’s confused when he blushes, but Dinah is snickering quietly and promising she’ll explain later, and that’s good enough for her.

She’s still having a hard time with social cues and socializing in general, but Dinah is helping her every day, and never reacts oddly when she says or does something weird, always patient and understanding, so unlike many others she has met and worked with.

She’s happy, Helena realizes as they leave the station together, Dinah makes her happy and she knows that she makes Dinah happy, as well; there have been obstacles in their path, a creepy murderer and her own worries about how she might mess this up, just by being who she is, but they have successfully navigated those obstacles, and now, they are happy.

Helena hopes they will be for a long time, and is determined to do whatever she can to make sure things will develop this way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it is done :D I had fun writing this and I hope you had fun reading it - and that I'll see you on the next one :D


End file.
